Israel Matzav: 'Palestinian Authority' has sent $7 billion to Gaza since 2007

Sunday, March 25, 2012

'Palestinian Authority' has sent $7 billion to Gaza since 2007

Who needs a 'Palestinian unity government' when one of these clowns is financing the other? On the eve of a 'donors meeting' for the 'Palestinian Authority' at which the 'Palestinians' will ask for - what else? - more money, the 'Palestinian Authority' has announced that it has sent $7 billion to Gaza since Hamas gained control of the coastal strip in a coup in 2007. Yes, that would be the same Gaza where a child died on Friday because there is no fuel for the power plant and no electricity for the hospital. 'Palestinian' journalist Hani Abbas (presumably no relation to the 'moderate' Mahmoud) explains (Hat Tip: MFS - The Other News).

The $7 billion that has been invested in the Gaza Strip by the Palestinian Authority has, ironically, helped Hamas solidify its control over the area. In other words, Fayyad and Abbas are funding their rivals in Hamas who terrorized them out of the Gaza Strip in June 2007. The Palestinian Authority is continuing to spend millions of dollars on the Gaza Strip at a time when its leaders are not even permitted to visit there; Mahmoud Abbas cannot even visit his home in Gaza.

The billions of dollars that the Palestinian Authority claims its has spent over the past five years, all from Europe and the United States, should have transformed the Gaza Strip into the Middle East's Singapore. These huge funds should have ended the suffering of the 1.5 million residents of the Gaza Strip. But despite all billions of dollars that have been poured into the area, the Gaza Strip remains a base for jihadists and various terror groups. As bad, the funds have done virtually nothing to solve the severe problem of unemployment and poverty in the Gaza Strip.

The donors, for example, have the right -- as well as the fiduciary responsibility to the taxpayers of Europe whose hard work was what bankrolled this transfer of wealth -- to know which "civil servants" in the Gaza Strip receive salaries, and if they include members of Hamas's security forces. Even more urgently needed is for the donors should check on whether some of the money is being used to finance the manufacturing of rockets and missiles and the purchase of weapons from Iran, Sudan and Egypt.

These billions are not only helping Hamas to stay in power, they are absolving Hamas of its responsibilities as the ruling government to be able to take care of its constituents. The Europeans, the American and the Palestinian Authority are also wrong if it thinks that the funds will have a moderating effect on the residents of the Gaza Strip. The people there will take the money from the Palestinian Authority government in the West Bank, but at the end of the day they will still vote for Hamas or Islamic Jihad.

Time to go push your elected representatives to demand accountability. This is beyond absurd.

Labels: European foreign aid, Gaza, Hamas, Palestinian Authority, US foreign aid