Bush's "day late and a dollar short" Approach To Palestinian's

Sorry for the long title for this post......but..it tells the tale best!
As is typical with the Bush adminsitration they are going to make moves that if taken months ago could have made the last week in Gaza less likely too have happened.
I have just been listening to a webcast report about the rumor that the Bush administration being poised to lift economic and diplomatic sanctions against the Palestinian government in the West Bank, now that a United States backed moderate government has evicted Islamic radicals from governance.
The U.S. move essentially would reset U.S. policy to the days before the Islamic militant group Hamas swept legislative elections in early 2006 and upended U.S. and international peacemaking. The United States, Israel and the European Union regard Hamas as a terrorist organization.
Hamas’ violent takeover of the Gaza Strip last week, however, essentially split the Palestinian government. Hamas, which does not recognize Israel’s right to exist, now runs Gaza, home to an estimated 1.5 million Palestinians. Abbas and his secular Fatah Party now run the West Bank. The West Bank, although much larger, also is home to estimated 1.5 million Palestinians.
That move cleared the way for the United States to resume direct aid payments to the Palestinian government, something it has refused to do so long as Hamas was a part of the government and could benefit from U.S. aid.
It has been five years since President Bush called for a separate, independent Palestine alongside Israel. He was the first U.S. president to back that notion so fully and publicly. But his administration has taken heavy criticism for letting the peace process drift while conditions worsened for the impoverished Palestinians.
Gaza was long the seat of power for Hamas while the West Bank is a stronghold for Fatah, the party of former Palestinian Leader Yasser Arafat.
Some in the United States and in Europe have advocated a policy dubbed the “West Bank first” in which the West Bank would stand as an example of what a future Palestinian state could be. Critics on the other side say that leaves Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip without international aid. Europeans oppose this idea, and others worry it would leave the Gaza Strip open to funding and influence from Iran and Syria.
After losing Gaza in a swift, five-day Hamas assault on his forces, Abbas moved quickly to cement his rule in the West Bank. He replaced the prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, with Finance Minister Salam Fayyad, a U.S.-educated, internationally respected economist.
Fayyad then moved forward with plans to form an emergency government , a move that Hamas has deemed illegal. The new government was sworn in by Sunday.
If these moves had been made months ago when Hamas won seats in the government there is the possibility that the "civil" war that we saw last week may not have occurred, but as is usual the Bush administration is a "day late and a dollar short".
How sad for all those who have and who will die as this rip in the Palestinian people widens.
I pray for the day that these people find peace, figuratively and literally!!