U.S. Lifts Aid Embargo To Palestinians

The Skinny is Jennifer Hoar's take on the top news of the day and the best of the Internet.

The Secretary of State announced Monday that, "in a swift demonstration of support" for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the U.S. would lift its embargo on aid to and diplomatic contact with the Palestinians, the Washington Post reports. As the Palestinians rastle with the anti-Israeli terrorist group Hamas, the U.S. will pledge up to $86 million to help them with "essential services."

After Hamas had won legislative elections in 2006, the U.S. had frozen its financial support to the Palestinians, the New York Times says. But even as the U.S. joins the European Union in offering to assist the beleaguered Abbas in doing "what he wants to do," as Rice put it yesterday, Israeli officials wonder how useful this strategy will prove since they consider Abbas "ineffectual and too willing to compromise with Hamas," the Post says. That may be true, but it's not every day that the U.S. turns around and lifts an embargo. We're very stubborn like that.

Challenging Commute, Google Pressure Compel Resignation

Yahoo's on first? Not Terry Semel. The Internet mainstay's CEO is out and its co-founder, Jerry Yang, is in, the Los Angeles Times says. The competition with Google apparently "wore down" Semel who, conveniently, commuted to Silicon Valley from his Beverly Hills manse in his private jet. That must've been exhausting, indeed.

The resignation was "abrupt," the Wall Street Journal reports, but Semel had faced increasing criticism from investors that the company needed new leadership. He will now hold the title of "nonexecutive chairman." Isn't that like saying powerless despot?

Gaza, Get Your Gun

Get your latest issue of Firearm Fancy! You don't have to be a militia man to tote a gun in Gaza; teachers have them, too! "Guns are like cellphones here now," a Gaza human rights group worker told the Wall Street Journal. "Merchants, schoolteachers and other civilians" have loaded up – pun intended – on the cheap weapons that have inundated the Gaza Strip over the past two years, evidently. A related New York Times article explains how those guns probably reach their owners: smuggling through a tunnel in a "gritty Sinai border town." Maybe they should consider an invisible border fence. That seems to have worked … wait, no …

Gimme A Break … Literally

Yesterday we heard that the Army has no PTSD unit at Walter Reed. Now we have the news that U.S. commanders in Iraq are "rejecting" Army mental health experts' recommendation that soldiers receive a "one-month break for every three months in a combat zone," Sony Before SunshineRemember the days when kids used to catch fireflies and chase the Good Humor truck in summertime? Didn't think so. That's because ours is a culture of "indoor children," the Washington Post reveals, and PlayStation trumps pool time.

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