The Donor's Conference
As usual, every major country in the world has agreed to donate large sums of money to the Palestinians, that other poor deprived groups in the world can only dream of, yet Saudi Arabia did not even attend the meeting held in Paris. In other words, while Britain and the US donated over m$500 each (are you happy that your tax money is being wasted in this way), Saudi Arabia donated ZERO!
The EU donated nearly m$350 and France donated m$200, so the accumulated total comes to ca. b$7.4! How many countries on earth could get this kind of largesse? It's absurd, given the track record of the Palestinians or the PA for corruption, stealing and incompetence. Is there transparency in the use of this money, will they provide a detailed accounting, can they even provide any kind of accounting? Anyway this is 30% more than they asked for. What wil they do with the excess, they'll pocket it of course.
Salam Fayyed, the PA PM, who was previously the PA Finance Minister, resigned from that position several years ago because he could not get any idea of their true financial position. He tried to do so, but at that time Yasir Arafat forced his resignation. It was well known that Yasir Arafat stole at least b$1.2 or up to b$2.5 into private bank accounts, that his wife Suha cleverly managed to gain control of after his death in Paris (by refusing to allow access to his body to the PA politicians unless they signed them over to her).
It is a mystery why so much money is being donated (over usually 3 years) to this previously unreliable and unregenerate cause. It is irrational and absurd! And this is quite separate from the question of Hamas and terrorism. Two points make this situation clearer. While the donors want and expect their money to help reform the PA Government, so that it will have transparency and reliable insititutions, including police and justice departments, Pres. Abbas wants to spend most of the money paying salaries! Why? In order to obtain the loylaty of those being paid off, in other words bribes and pay-offs, under the name of salaries. No less an authority than Tony Blair, special representative of the Quartet, has criticized this use of the funds, but since the main point of the money is to "empower" or "bolster" Abbas, this is the traditional Arab way to do it!
Another aspect of this is that the salaries will also be paid to Fatah/PA Govt. workers in Gaza. Now don't tell me that this won't help Hamas, since one of their main problems is that they can't afford to pay salaries in Gaza. Don't worry, Abbas will do it for them. Of course, this in no way guarantees that they won't remain loyal to Hamas and will transfer their loyalties back to Fatah. Its just another form of corruption, trying to buy them out, without any idea if this will actually be effective. Your tax money at work!
At the same time as all this money is being donated to this corrupt cause, Israel is being pressured to allow the PA to rearm, and is allowing guns and bullets to be transferred to the PA (apart from their ability to buy them now with the money being provided). It has been proven that one of the guns transferred from Jordan to the PA with Israel's cooperation, was used by a PA policeman to shoot and kill Ido Zoltan, a security guard who was shot dead two weeks ago while driving on the West Bank. Israel holds two of his killers and the PA holds the other one (but won't turn him over).
Israel is also donating the tax money it holds for the PA, and is being asked to make concessions in advance, such as a halt to all "settlement" building. Actually no new settlements are being constructed legally, but expansion of exisiting settlements is being done, and this is legal. While Abbas sticks to the hard Arab line, blaming Israel for all problems, FM Tzippy Livni, speaking on behalf of Israel, admits that Israel must make more concessions! What stupidity! On the contrary, Israel should make no concessions until it sees that Abbas makes at least one advance, namely stopping terrorism from the West Bank and disarming all the "militias" or terrorist groups (or gangs of thugs) that control most of the cities of the West Bank. Abbas may be well-meaning, and he may want to do this, but can he, even with all the money in the world?
The EU donated nearly m$350 and France donated m$200, so the accumulated total comes to ca. b$7.4! How many countries on earth could get this kind of largesse? It's absurd, given the track record of the Palestinians or the PA for corruption, stealing and incompetence. Is there transparency in the use of this money, will they provide a detailed accounting, can they even provide any kind of accounting? Anyway this is 30% more than they asked for. What wil they do with the excess, they'll pocket it of course.
Salam Fayyed, the PA PM, who was previously the PA Finance Minister, resigned from that position several years ago because he could not get any idea of their true financial position. He tried to do so, but at that time Yasir Arafat forced his resignation. It was well known that Yasir Arafat stole at least b$1.2 or up to b$2.5 into private bank accounts, that his wife Suha cleverly managed to gain control of after his death in Paris (by refusing to allow access to his body to the PA politicians unless they signed them over to her).
It is a mystery why so much money is being donated (over usually 3 years) to this previously unreliable and unregenerate cause. It is irrational and absurd! And this is quite separate from the question of Hamas and terrorism. Two points make this situation clearer. While the donors want and expect their money to help reform the PA Government, so that it will have transparency and reliable insititutions, including police and justice departments, Pres. Abbas wants to spend most of the money paying salaries! Why? In order to obtain the loylaty of those being paid off, in other words bribes and pay-offs, under the name of salaries. No less an authority than Tony Blair, special representative of the Quartet, has criticized this use of the funds, but since the main point of the money is to "empower" or "bolster" Abbas, this is the traditional Arab way to do it!
Another aspect of this is that the salaries will also be paid to Fatah/PA Govt. workers in Gaza. Now don't tell me that this won't help Hamas, since one of their main problems is that they can't afford to pay salaries in Gaza. Don't worry, Abbas will do it for them. Of course, this in no way guarantees that they won't remain loyal to Hamas and will transfer their loyalties back to Fatah. Its just another form of corruption, trying to buy them out, without any idea if this will actually be effective. Your tax money at work!
At the same time as all this money is being donated to this corrupt cause, Israel is being pressured to allow the PA to rearm, and is allowing guns and bullets to be transferred to the PA (apart from their ability to buy them now with the money being provided). It has been proven that one of the guns transferred from Jordan to the PA with Israel's cooperation, was used by a PA policeman to shoot and kill Ido Zoltan, a security guard who was shot dead two weeks ago while driving on the West Bank. Israel holds two of his killers and the PA holds the other one (but won't turn him over).
Israel is also donating the tax money it holds for the PA, and is being asked to make concessions in advance, such as a halt to all "settlement" building. Actually no new settlements are being constructed legally, but expansion of exisiting settlements is being done, and this is legal. While Abbas sticks to the hard Arab line, blaming Israel for all problems, FM Tzippy Livni, speaking on behalf of Israel, admits that Israel must make more concessions! What stupidity! On the contrary, Israel should make no concessions until it sees that Abbas makes at least one advance, namely stopping terrorism from the West Bank and disarming all the "militias" or terrorist groups (or gangs of thugs) that control most of the cities of the West Bank. Abbas may be well-meaning, and he may want to do this, but can he, even with all the money in the world?
posted by Jack Cohen at 3:12 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home