Israel Matzav

Their 'worst financial crisis' evah....

Abu Mazen is praying that the 'Palestinian Authority' finds a way out of its worst financial crisis evah (or at least since last month and until next month).

Ahmed Majdalani warned that a shortfall in the delivery of aid from Arab donor nations means the PA will be unable to pay employees their July salaries or pay off debts it owes to private businesses across the West Bank.

“It is the worst financial crisis experienced by the Palestinian Authority since its founding,” he told AFP.

“What is available to the Palestinian Authority at the moment in terms of funds is not enough to pay government employee salaries this month, with Ramadan approaching,” he said.

“It is not sufficient to pay the bills that the Palestinian Authority owes to private companies.”

I can think of some ways they can find some money. Let them take the terrorists off the payroll. Let them take the people they pay to do nothing in Gaza (including Hamas) off the payroll. Let them consolidate their 'security services' into less than five. Let them look for all that money that Arafat and Abu Mazen and others stashed in Switzerland. Let them take Suha Arafat off the payroll (how many 'Palestinian' employees can you pay with $500,000 a month?). Do I need to go on?

The executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization also warned on Saturday of the dire funding situation facing the West Bank government.

“The executive committee calls on all the brotherly Arab nations to contribute to the solution of the urgent financial crisis that the national authority faces,” it said.

“The continuation of this crisis will threaten both the Authority’s short and long-term development and the stability of its institutions,” the committee warned.

“The current financial situation is worse than any previous circumstances and requires rapid intervention,” it added.

So who helps them out? Not the Arab countries, but the dhimmis who 'lead' Israel (Hat Tip: Bad Blue) (Full article here).

Israel recently asked the International Monetary Fund for a bridge loan of a $100 million dollars that it planned to transfer to the Palestinian Authority to help prevent its financial collapse, but the IMF turned down the request.

The PA, which is not a state, cannot ask the IMF for help on its own. The plan therefore, was for Israel to take the loan on the Palestinians' behalf, have the PA repay the loan to Israel, and Israel would repay the IMF.

The IMF rejected the Israeli request, however, saying it did not want to set a precedent of a state taking a loan on behalf of a non-state entity.

And they're trying to find another 'solution.'

Despite the refusal, Fischer and Fayyad are trying to find an alternate solution.

Fischer and Fayyad know each other well from the period when the two of them worked at the IMF from the end of the 1990s until 2001. During those years Fayyad was the IMF representative to the PA and Fischer was the fund's deputy director. Both ended their terms at the IMF at about the same time; Fayyad was named finance minister in the PA government and Fischer went to the private sector, becoming Bank of Israel governor in 2005.

What guarantee would Israel have that it would not be holding the bag? Why is no one even discussing cutting all the waste (and payments to terrorists) in the PA's budget?

Labels: Abu Mazen, Palestinian Authority corruption, Palestinian Authority donors, Salam Fayyad, Stanley Fischer

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:55 PM