Representatives of the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations – the so-called Quartet – agreed in New York this Tuesday on a plan to deliver aid to the Palestinian Authority, following European and French requests that emergency aid be granted.

The Quartet decided that a “temporary international mechanism” could be created to provide aid, provided “that is limited in scope and duration, operates with full transparency and accountability, and ensures direct delivery of assistance to the Palestinian people,” according to the Quartet’s statement.

The following day, Israel announced its acceptance of the mechanism. In conjunciton, Israel decided to release NIS 50 million-out of a total NIS 500 million-of the Palestinian tax money that it holds, which according to the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth will be used to purchase medicine and medical equipment with the money and transfer them through international organizations.

Europeans have been searching for a way to channel direct aid to the Palestinian Authority and circumvent the Hamas-led government at the same time, led primarily by France. The goal of this new mechansim, said Benita Ferrero-Waldner, external relations commissioner of the European Union, is to “distribute aid to the Palestinian people without going through the Palestinian government.”

French President Jacques Chirac, although in deep domestic trouble with a brewing political scanadal involving his Prime Minister, had recently gone public with his views that the West should find alternative means to support the Palestinina Authority, and pay the salaries of Palestinian government workers.

At the end of April, after meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Paris, Chirac said the World Bank should set up a fund to pay the salaries of Palestinian officials.

A recent World Bank memo that was leaked to the press before the Quartet’s meeting mentioning that the Palestinian Authority could soon become ungovernable because of a severe financial crisis.