Israel Matzav

Please help 'Palestine's billionaires

Please make sure you support 'Palestinian' billionaires, just like the 'international community' does.

Labels: Palestinian Authority corruption, Palestinian Authority donors, terror funding

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:50 PM 0 comments

Bluffing after all

In an earlier post, I predicted that the Israel Electric Corporation (a 'government company') was bluffing about turning off the power to the 'Palestinian Authority.'

I was right.

Truly Kafkaesque given Netanyahu govt withholding tax revenue it's obligated to transfer to the Palestinian Authority pic.twitter.com/ztXOS751Fn
— Dylan Williams (@dylanotes) February 23, 2015

PS Netanyahu has been withholding tax revenue for a couple of months (since the 'Palestinians' applied to join the International Criminal Court). A NIS 2 billion debt takes years to accumulate. There's no connection between the debt and the taxes.

Labels: Israel Electric Corporation, Palestinian Authority, Palestinian Authority corruption, Palestinian Authority donors

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:32 PM 0 comments

Is he bluffing?

יו"ר דירקטוריון חברת חשמל יפתח רונטל: הרש"פ חייבת לנו 2 מיליארד ש"ח ומהיום בצהריים נתחיל לצמצם/להגביל את זרם החשמל לרש"פ
— Gal Berger גל ברגר (@galberger) February 23, 2015

For the Hebrew-impaired, the tweet above, from Israel Radio's Gal Berger, means the following:

Yiftach Rosental, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Israel Electric Corporation: The 'Palestinian Authority' owes us NIS 2 billion, and from this afternoon, we will start to limit the flow of electricity to the 'Palestinian Authority.'

Does anyone believe that this will really happen? If yes, does anyone believe it will last more than 24 hours? I don't believe it will happen at all, and if it happens, I don't believe it will last more than a very short time.

But it's long overdue. You and I couldn't get away without paying our electric bill for more than a month or two before they would cut us off completely with far less warning.

Labels: Israel Electric Corporation, Palestinian Authority, Palestinian Authority corruption, Palestinian Authority donors

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:46 PM 0 comments

EU 'discovers' it's paying for no-show jobs in Gaza

I don't know how they could have missed it until now, but the European Union has 'discovered' that it is paying the 'salaries' of thousands of 'Palestinian Authority employees' in Gaza who are paid to stay home.

Since 2008, the EU's largest program in PA territorry has been PEGASE DFS, which provided approximately $1.4 billion (1 billion euros) in funding from 2008 to 2012. PEGASE DFS seeks to help the PA to meet its obligations to civil servants, pensioners and vulnerable families, maintain essential public services and improve public finances.

“While the Commission and European External Action Service (EEAS) have succeeded in implementing the support to the Palestinian Authority in difficult circumstances, there are a number of aspects of the current approach that are increasingly in need of an overhaul” stated Wessberg. “Although some important results have been achieved, there is a need for major revisions such as encouraging the PA to undertake more reforms, notably in relation to its civil service. Furthermore, a way needs to be found to bring Israel to take the necessary steps to help ensure that PEGASE DFS is effective”.

The European Union has provided more than $7.7 billion (5.6 billion euros) in assistance to the Palestinian people since 1994.

The report recommends that an agreement be reached with the PA for the funding of salaries and pensions from PEGASE DFS for civil servants in Gaza to be discontinued and redirected to Judea and Samaria.

It also recommends that Israel be pressed to find ways to make PEGASE more effective. In this, it is reminiscent of a Dutch EU report also released Wednesday, which blames Israel for the fact that Palestinian institutions are not democratic enough.

Excuse me, but how do they propose that Israel make it 'more effective'? Send in the IDF?

Labels: European Union, Fatah, Gaza plenty, Hamas, Palestinian Authority, Palestinian Authority donors

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:58 PM 2 comments

Norwegian foreign minister says world won't bankroll 'Palestinian state building' forever

Does the 'international community' seriously believe that the morning after - God forbid - there is a 'Palestinian state,' that 'state' will be economically viable? It sure sounds like it from this interview with Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide, who currently chairs the 'Palestinian donor conference.'

Both the Palestinians and Israel should know that the world will not bankroll Palestinian Authority state-building forever, and that if progress is not made the donations will stop, Norway’s Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide told The Jerusalem Post Tuesday.

“The donors will not be ready to keep funding Palestinian state-building much longer if we are not seeing a political horizon,” said Eide.

Norway heads the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee, which is the international group of donors scheduled to meet next month in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting.

Eide said it was important for both sides to know – as they have just restarted negotiations – that the world was not willing to provide a blank check.

“I think this is important for the Palestinians to know, because if anyone there thought they could sort of just fall back to the comfort of an internationally subsidized state-building endeavor, that may be wrong,” he said in an interview. “And I think that it is important for some people on the Israeli side – living in reasonable comfort [given] that cooperation with the pseudo-state in the West Bank is quite good – to know that this cannot continue forever.”

So if the 'international community' decides that there is no hope of there ever being a 'Palestinian state,' they will cut off all their financial support? Then why are we at the table?

And if 'international community' believes they're not going to have to support the 'Palestinians' forever (as they have done for the last 65 years) once there is a 'Palestinian state,' why are the 'Palestinians' at the table? After all, in the 20 years since Oslo, the 'Palestinians' have shown absolutely zero interest in economic development or the kinds of activities that go into running a state on a day-to-day basis like roads, sewers, water supply etc.

The 'international community' has to understand that just like the United States has been propping Egypt up economically for the 36 years since Camp David - because otherwise why would they keep to the peace treaty - the 'international community' is signing on to support the 'Palestinians' in perpetuity. The day that the 'Palestinians' stop being bribed to live in peace will be the day that they stop living in peace.

What could go wrong?

Labels: Espen Barth Eide, Norway, Palestinian Authority donors, two-state solution

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:47 AM 1 comments

World complains about every apartment built in Israel but is silent on 'Palestinian' incitement

After a translation showed that 'Palestinian' radio told its listeners ten days ago that 'one day there will be no Israel,' Prime Minister Netanyahu's spokesman Mark Regev said on Monday that the world complains about every announcement of 'settlement' construction, but has nothing to say about 'Palestinian' incitement.

Regev’s comments, just days before a second round of peace talks expected in Jericho, were in response to comments made by an announcer on the Palestinian Authority’s official Voice of Palestine, who said that “one day” there will be no Israel and “Palestine will be Palestine again.”

Regev also cited a drama running on Palestinian television which he said showed Palestinians – after a Hamas-Fatah reconciliation – attacking a Jew and cutting off his ear-locks. “While this incitement is happening, we hear a deafening silence from the international community,” he said.

“When Israel builds in areas which everyone understands will remain part of Israel in a final-status agreement, this is somehow perceived as a problem for peace. When Palestinians indoctrinate their people with hatred for Israel, and thereby directly undermine reconciliation, this is ignored.

“What is required of leadership at this time is to prepare the public for respect and reconciliation. But what we are seeing from the Palestinians is the opposite: continued demonization, stress on maximalist goals and that Israel is an illegitimate creation that will eventually disappear.”

The United States has responded by making another donation of $148 million to the 'Palestinian Authority' on behalf of the American taxpayer. And there are $4 billion more where that came from.

The aid was delivered “to help the Palestinian Authority avert a budget crisis and to support US efforts to achieve a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” a US official told The Jerusalem Post.

In his memorandum to Secretary of State John Kerry issuing the waiver of restriction of funds, President Barack Obama said that the aid “is important to the national security interests of the Unites States.”

The waiver is in line with previous waivers exercised by this and previous administrations, the official said.

“Direct budget support to the PA is the most immediate and efficient means of helping the PA maintain and build the foundations of a viable, peaceful Palestinian state,” the official added.

“There has been a recurring budget crisis in the PA, year in and year out, for as long as anyone can remember,” said David Pollock, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “But even though the PA is short of cash, the Palestinian economy in the West Bank is showing pretty good signs of life.”

Roughly half of the PA budget is spent on Gaza, which provides the government with little return but is required to continue its linkage with the troubled Palestinian strip. The $148 million will likely be spent on PA salaries, Pollock said.

In other words, it's going to be spent on terrorists in Israeli prisons, their families, and the families of 'martyrs.' And of course, to Hamas.

What could go wrong?

Labels: martyrs salaries, Palestinian Authority donors, prisoner salaries, US economy

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:42 AM 0 comments

Obama's personal Ramadamadan gift to the 'Palestinian Authority'

The Friday before last, when all was quiet, President Hussein Obama announced that he would once again ignore Congressional restrictions on aid to the 'Palestinian Authority.'

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 7040(b) of the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2012 (Division I, Public Law 112-74) (the "Act") as carried forward by the Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2013 (Division F, Public Law 113-6) (the "CR"), I hereby certify that it is important to the national security interests of the United States to waive the provisions of section 7040(a) of the Act as carried forward by the CR, in order to provide funds appropriated to carry out chapter 4 of part II of the Foreign Assistance Act, as amended, to the Palestinian Authority.

And what's behind all that gobbledygook?

Citing the United States’ “national security interests,” the president signed an executive order providing $148 million to the Palestinian Authority. That is in addition to the $500 million Obama authorized just four months ago, also in apparent violation of congressional authority. At that time, Secretary of State John Kerry said he would like to see an additional $200 million go to the Palestinian group, according to The Washington Times.

“Some lawmakers oppose the aid, both because of sequestration budget cuts and the Palestinian Authority’s ties to the terrorist organization Hamas,” the Times reported.

...

Section 3 of the Palestinian Accountability Act provides in part, “No funds available to any United States Government department or agency to carry out the provisions of chapter 4 of part II of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 for any fiscal year may be obligated or expended with respect to providing funds to the Palestinian Authority.”

...

An administration official referred to the $148 million in aid as, “the most immediate and efficient means of helping the PA maintain and build the foundations of a viable, peaceful Palestinian state.”

Yeah, sure. Paying salaries to imprisoned terrorists is “the most immediate and efficient means of helping the PA maintain and build the foundations of a viable, peaceful Palestinian state.” And the sun will rise in the West tomorrow morning.

Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Palestinian Authority donors, prisoner salaries, US foreign aid

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:38 PM 0 comments

Abu Bluff told he can't just let Fayyad resign

Maybe the West isn't quite as dumb as we thought they were. The western countries that donate money to keep the 'Palestinian Authority' running are pressuring 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen not to accept the resignation of Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, the only 'Palestinian' whom the West entrusts with money.

Aides to Abbas, speaking on condition of anonymity, were scathing in their assessment of the Texas-educated Fayyad, hinting that the president would be pleased to see him go.

However, a Western diplomat expressed dismay at the political in-fighting at a time when the United States is making a concerted effort to revive Israeli-Palestinian negotiations and boost the flailing economy.

"Pressure is being put on Abbas to sit on this resignation offer for at least two months to see what comes of the US initiative," said a senior European diplomat, who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue.

US diplomats were due to visit Ramallah on Thursday and was expected to press Fayyad's case, another diplomat said.

The US initiative is going nowhere - it's been rejected by both sides already. But that's just an excuse. The real question is whom the 'Palestinians' have that the West would trust to replace Fayyad. The answer right now is no one. 

Labels: Abu Mazen, Palestinian Authority donors, Salam Fayyad

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:08 PM 1 comments

Report: Fayyad tenders resignation

Reuters is reporting that 'Palestinian' Prime Minister Salam Fayyad tendered his resignation on Wednesday, and 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen seems likely to accept it on Thursday. Representatives of the 'international community' may be uncomfortable giving money to the 'Palestinians' without Fayyad's presence. This is from the first link.

Western governments have offered staunch support to Fayyad ever since he became prime minister in 2007, seeing him as the architect of Palestinian state-building efforts, and his departure could complicate their ties with Abbas.

Long-strained relations between the 61-year-old Fayyad and Abbas worsened last month when the prime minister accepted the resignation of his finance minister, against the wishes of the president.

Initially successful in revitalizing a sluggish Palestinian economy, Fayyad ran into trouble last year when Israel and the United States withheld vital funds to punish the Palestinians for seeking de facto statehood at the United Nations.

They said the unilateral move ran counter to previous accords and their financial penalties meant Palestinian public sector salaries went unpaid, stoking street protests.

Abbas's Fatah party accused Fayyad of failing to foresee the turmoil and the party's council issued an unprecedented rebuke last week, saying: "The policies of the current government are improvised and confused in many financial and economic issues."

...

Speaking earlier on Wednesday about the rumors of a division between Fayyad and Abbas, a senior diplomat in Jerusalem said Western aid donors would be very upset to see the respected prime minister leave his post.

"Fayyad's departure would have a serious impact on relations with the international community," said the diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "It is hard to overstate how important Fayyad has been."

The diplomat added that Fayyad's institution-building drive in the West Bank had been "the single best thing" that had happened in the Palestinian territories in recent years, adding that the premier was also highly trusted by Israeli leaders.

I doubt that there is anything Fayyad could have down to fend off the economic disaster that resulted from the 'Palestinians' unilateral turn to the UN last fall. That was just plain stupid.

On the other hand, the western donors have brought this upon themselves by continuing to encourage Abu Mazen to move forward with unity talks with Hamas. Hamas hates Fayyad and will not agree to reconcile with Fatah so long as Fayyad is in the government. I'd be pleasantly surprised if Fayyad's resignation caused any of them to turn off the aid spigot. Abu Mazen has figured that out too.

What could go wrong?

Labels: Abu Mazen, Hamas-Fatah reconciliation, Palestinian Authority donors, Salam Fayyad

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:48 AM 0 comments

Abu Mazen killing the goose that's laying his golden eggs

It's been more than four years since 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen's term in office expired, and he apparently doesn't understand that while he has a lot of support in the West, the only reason they're actually putting their money where their mouths are is because of Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.

Now, Abu Mazen is about to kill the goose that keeps laying the golden eggs. He's about to fire Fayyad.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas may dismiss Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayad, according to an AFP report quoting a member of Fatah's Revolutionary Council on Friday. 

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the member said that the president “is leaning towards dismissing Fayyad from the head of the government and forming a new one.”

According to the member, the conflict between Abbas and Fayad arose following the resignation of the Palestinian Authority's finance minister Nabil Qasis when Abbas refused to accept the resignation but Fayad agreed to.  

The official said "Abbas informed Fayyad that if Nabil Qasis did not return to the finance ministry... Abbas would dismiss his government and form a new one," AFP reported.

Faster, faster. 

Labels: Abu Mazen, Palestinian Authority donors, Salam Fayyad

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:22 PM 0 comments

How Britain's MI6 helps the 'Palestinian Authority' torment suspects

It's widely known here that the 'Palestinian Authority' arrests and tortures 'Palestinians.' But until now, no one who was part of the torture apparatus had admitted it. Now, a former 'Palestinian Authority' officer has admitted that the 'Palestinian Authority' does what we always thought that they do. In a lengthy expose in London's Daily Mail, he describes and attempts to justify what's been done. And Britain, along with the Untied States and the European Union, is paying for it (Hat Tip: Shy Guy).

Nowadays, he adds, the preferred method is termed ‘shabeh’ – the hooding and tying of the prisoner in a variety of agonising positions for up to eight hours. He does not elaborate on the details, but claims: ‘It works with 95 per cent of the subjects.’ It also takes considerable skill: ‘You have to deal with it as if you were playing a guitar. Each case has its own speciality.’

This extraordinary interview is the first admission by a former perpetrator of the widespread torture of Palestinians – not by Israel, but by the Palestinian Authority (PA) which governs the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

It was given to me last week in a dusty Palestinian city. Across the table was a well-dressed, middle-aged family man with an infectious smile – a former PA official.

He spoke only on the strictest condition of anonymity as he feared becoming a torture victim himself should his identity become public. But he wanted to speak out because he was sure that the ends – a Palestinian state and the defeat of extremism – justify the means.

But perhaps the most shocking revelation is that torture sessions still being perpetrated by his former colleagues are financed with Britain’s help. Our taxpayers give £33 million direct to the PA, while £53 million is donated by Britain for various aid projects – more UK aid per head than we give any other nation.

Then again, Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, which has officers based in Jerusalem, works closely with the Palestinian agencies that carry out the torture, seeing them as sources of valuable intelligence.

The UK also provides and pays for the training of middle and senior ranking officers from every PA security agency, including the General Intelligence Service or Mukhabarat, the Preventive Security Organisation, Military Intelligence and the ordinary police force. Ironically, the training includes courses on the need to respect human rights and the rule of law.

Yes, the British are very interested in human rights,’ adds the Palestinian security man.

‘They say, “We can’t convince British taxpayers [to continue to fund the PA] if you violate them.” So we do our best. But it happens.’

Just what ‘it’ means was described by a very recent victim, a professional man in his 40s who was freed without charge two weeks ago after more than a month in Mukhabarat detention.

‘For most of the time I was held, they gave me shabeh every day,’ he says. ‘Always I was hooded, and sometimes they tied my arms in front of me and attached me to the wall, leaving me like that for long, long hours, on tiptoes. You have pain in the arms, in the legs and in the body, and swelling in your muscles. Often I could also hear screaming from the prisoners.

‘But it was worse when they suspended me with my arms tied behind me. Your body is curved, like a banana. Most of the time they do not let your feet touch the ground.’ He showed me his arms and hands – they were still puffy and swollen. ‘During the shabeh, they looked much worse,’ he added.

In another variant, the suspect was hog-tied – laid on his back on top of a chair with his wrists and ankles lashed together beneath the seat. Usually the torture happened at night: ‘When you’re exhausted, they take you back to your cell.’

...

It’s not just Britain that keeps the PA running – the US and EU are also major contributors to a £800 million a year aid package (15 per cent of the EU’s donation of £133 million comes from UK taxpayers).

The reason why a territory with fewer than 2.5 million inhabitants gets so much money is political. The Israel-Palestinian peace process has produced no sign of a breakthrough for the past 20 years, but the international community believes the only way to create a Palestinian state is to build on the PA, which is also Israel’s negotiating partner.

But with about a third of the PA budget being spent on its security agencies, the consequence of Western generosity has been the creation of a police state.

...

British Consul-General Sir Vincent Fean, who leads Britain’s diplomatic mission to the PA, has raised concerns with President Mahmoud Abbas and the PA prime minister, Salam Fayyad. But there have been no warnings that if the situation does not improve the flow of cash will stop.

Mohammed Jamil, head of the UK-based Arab Organisation for Human Rights, which has published several reports on PA abuse, said such visits were futile. ‘They have been going for years, but nothing has changed. Britain has the power to stop the torture, but it will require much tougher action,’ he said.

The ICHR’s Ms Siniora added: ‘There is no doubt things are getting worse. Last year, we inspected one prison where there was clear evidence of shabeh – we saw the hooks on the walls. But as our 2012 report will say when it is published, not one of the cases of torture that came to light has been properly investigated.

‘There is no accountability. There is a culture of impunity – there has not been a single case of an official involved in torture being prosecuted.’

On Wednesday, she added, she was visited by a senior British official from Jerusalem. ‘I told him, “You are supporting the security agencies and you are training them. You have a very big responsibility for ensuring that your taxpayers’ money is not spent on torture.” ’

But PA torture does not often make UK headlines. And liaisons are close between MI6 and the Mukhabarat, the very agency responsible for the worst abuse.

This is nothing compared with what they would do to Jews if God forbid they are ever given the opportunity. And you wonder why we don't want them to set up their reichlet on our borders?

Read the whole thing.

Labels: Britain, European Union, MI6, Palestinian Authority corruption, Palestinian Authority donors, torture, United States

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:43 AM 0 comments

Arab countries withholding money from PA because it refuses to negotiate with Israel

Reports in 'Palestinian' media indicate that Arab countries are withholding contributions from the 'Palestinian Authority' because it refuses to negotiate with Israel.

Informed Palestinian sources said yesterday that several Arab countries offered ‘advice’ to President Mahmoud Abbas on a number of occasions and meetings to step down from his post and set a date soon for presidential and legislative elections.

The sources told Quds Net that Abu Mazen was facing pressures from Arab countries to step down, attributing this pressure on him to Abu Mazen’s ‘firm stances towards negotiations with Israel and his adherence to his basic conditions for resuming the negotiations process.”

The sources revealed that Abbas has turned down several Arab offers, saying that the financial siege from which the PA is suffering is unfortunately from a number of ‘heavyweight’ Arab countries.

These countries have refused to transfer funds to the PA and are towing the US and Israeli line in trying to undermine Abu Mazen’s authorities and embarrass him in front of his people, all so that he would back down from his conditions and accept solutions being put on the table.
According to these sources, “Arab and Gulf states” informed Abbas literally that they would not support the PA as long as his positions did not change.

Hmmm. 

Labels: Abu Mazen, Gulf states, Palestinian Authority donors, Palestinian state RIGHT NOW syndrome

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:22 PM 1 comments

Israel gives 'Palestinians' NIS 200 million reward for UN gambit

The government of Israel has decided to give the 'Palestinian Authority' a NIS 200 million reward for their UN gambit  by transferring that amount of 'tax money' to the 'Palestinian Authority' just two days before the UN vote. Of course, as usual, much of that money will go to pay the salaries of the PA's 'employees' in Gaza (you know, the ones who bragged that they shot 516 rockets at Israel last week), to pay Hamas, and to pay the 'salaries' of 'Palestinian' terrorists in Israeli jails.

The transfer of the money, 200 million shekels, took place just two days before the vote in the United Nations General Assembly on the PA’s unilateral bid to become a non-member observer state.

The transfer was done despite recent threats by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman that if the PA goes ahead with its statehood bid, he will work to ensure the entity collapses.

Army Radio noted that Israel has said it would not take extreme steps in response to the PA’s statehood bid but has continued to threaten to freeze the funds it transfers to the PA each month. Despite this threat, however, and despite PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s statements that he does not intend to back down from the move, Israel transferred the funds on Tuesday.

Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz, who has also threatened the PA with sanctions if it goes ahead with its bid, told Army Radio on Wednesday that Israel would respond to the move at the correct time and place.

“If the Palestinian Authority thinks it will attack us in the UN in such a harsh way and will continue to benefit from the cooperation with us, I think that some surprises await it,” said Steinitz.

If only our politicians had the courage of their convictions.... 

Labels: martyrs salaries, Palestinian Authority donors, Palestinian economy, Palestinian terrorists, prisoner salaries

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:34 AM 0 comments

'East Jerusalem' hospitals on verge of collapse: 'Palestinian Authority' hasn't paid its bills

More than thirty years ago, during the euphoria following Camp David, I traveled with my Grandmother a"h (May she rest in peace) to Egypt. My grandmother refused to drink (bottled) water, and as a result she dehydrated in Luxor on a day when it was 50 degrees Celsius outside... in March. There were a group of American nurses who were doing a rotation in a hospital in Riyadh who were part of our group, and they told me "whatever you do, do not let your grandmother be hospitalized in Egypt or in any other Arab country."

The gold standard for hospitals in this region is Israel. Thousands of 'Palestinians' and other Arabs are treated at Israel's hospitals - the 'Palestinians' rarely pay.

'East' Jerusalem is a distant second. The 'Palestinians' rarely pay there either. Now, the 'East Jerusalem' hospitals are going broke as a result of the 'Palestinian Authority's non-payment.

Saddled with seemingly insurmountable debt and lacking a long-term solution, Tawfiq Nasser doesn't mince words. "People will die," he said, solemnly, from his office at Augusta Victoria hospital in East Jerusalem.

"The bottom line is that people will not be able to access healthcare, especially the most disadvantaged: the poor, women, children, and people from Gaza," Nasser, CEO of Augusta Victoria hospital, and Director of the East Jerusalem hospital network (EJHN), said.

East Jerusalem hospitals are currently facing the most severe financial crisis in their history. As a result of unpaid debt accrued from the Palestinian Authority (PA), the six specialised healthcare centres that comprise the EJHN are currently operating with a financial shortfall of more than 57 million NIS ($14.9m).

Many hospitals are now considering cutting down on staff, or limiting the amount of patients they admit. Some are running out of medicines, while others haven't paid surgeons their full salaries in months. Most don't have the cash flow needed to purchase expensive equipment and tools.

"When the Palestinian Authority is in trouble, we have no means of sustenance. Of course, then it's the people who suffer," said Nasser, explaining that at Augusta Victoria hospital alone, the PA is behind on about 42 million NIS ($11m) in debt payments. "We could be looking at a complete collapse scenario."

Unfortunately, for the 'Palestinian Authority,' weapons to destroy Israel and  money for its leaders' Swiss bank accounts are a much higher priority than giving proper medical care to their 'people.' It is far more likely that the 'international community' will come in and bail out the 'Palestinian Authority' while the 'Palestinians' continue to choose guns exclusively over butter... guns and graft.

What could go wrong?

Labels: East Jerusalem, financial crisis, Palestinian Authority corruption, Palestinian Authority donors

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:20 PM 1 comments

World ditches 'Palestinians,' Egypt next?

Spengler shows that when push comes to shove, the 'international community' has abandoned the 'Palestinians' in the only way that seems to matter (financial support) and wonders whether Egypt will be next. 

"No one cares about the Palestinians," I wrote in this space two years ago [1], and since then the world has stopped funding them. As a result, the Palestine Authority is collapsing, comments Khalid Elgindy, a former PA adviser, on the website of the Council on Foreign Relations, about "the wave of Palestinian protests that swept through the Israeli-occupied West Bank this month [and] ... virtually paralyzed life in Palestinian cities, with scenes reminiscent of the first intifada".

The PA can't pay salaries because international donors, including the Gulf States, haven't sent promised aid:

A rapid infusion of cash from the international community and Israel may buy the PA some time, but it cannot kick the can down the road forever - especially if a recently released World Bank report is right that a more severe fiscal crisis will take root if donor countries fail to act swiftly.

Even if the PA manages to hobble along for a few more months or years, a weak and divided Palestinian leadership with questionable domestic legitimacy will be in no position to negotiate a comprehensive agreement with Israel or make that agreement stick. This week's mass arrests of Hamas activists, carried out in the wake of the protests, speaks to the PA leadership's deep sense of insecurity. [2]

International donors are weary of Mahmoud Abbas' sorry little West Bank kleptocracy, while the squeeze on the state budgets of all the industrial nations makes it harder to shake loose money for an unpopular destination. The World Bank warned on September 19 of a "deepening Palestinian fiscal crisis" and issued an "urgent appeal" to donors. [3]

Diplomats and bureaucrats at international organizations will issue press releases, wring their hands, make promises and then break them. No-one is going to write a check to the Palestine Authority.

The question is: when will the world also grow weary of Egypt?

Read the whole thing.

Labels: Egypt, Palestinian Authority corruption, Palestinian Authority donors

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:28 PM 0 comments

The end of 'Fayyadism'?

Jonathan Schanzer reports that westernized 'Palestinian Prime Minister' Salam Fayyad may be on his way out. And if he goes, one has to wonder how the West will continue to justify pouring money into the bottomless pit known as the 'Palestinian Authority.'

Fayyad's crusade against corruption, coupled with his sustained effort to construct real administrative institutions, is part of the reason for his isolation. Over the years, the P.A. has earned a reputation—first under the late Yasser Arafat and then under current president Mahmoud Abbas—for nepotism and corruption. Arafat's former advisor Mohammed Rachid (recently sentenced in absentia for corruption) recently leveled a series of damning accusations against Abbas and his inner circle. And while Fayyad is certainly not in cahoots with Rachid, for the powerful Palestinian insiders who have established lucrative monopolies under the Abbas regime, Fayyad's "Mr. Transparency" shtick has become consistently irksome.

That's why some Palestinians speculate that regime loyalists organized anti-Fayyad rallies. While they were not exactly "rent-a-rallies," pro-Fatah chants were prevalent. And as Hugh Naylor of The National notes, the anti-Fayyad protests seemed to last a lot longer than other demonstrations decrying the PA and its policies.

Senior Palestinian officials have stood by Fayyad in public, including longtime senior PLO figure Nabil Shaath and even Abbas, But Abbas and Fayyad are both public faces of a failed government, which Palestinians rightfully view has having fallen short of its sole mandate -- to negotiate a final status agreement with Israel and create a Palestinian state.

Abbas recently threatened to quit, but quickly stepped back from the brink. Fayyad may be another story. Some insiders believe that he is trying to buy time before he quits on his own terms. With few leaders prepared to continue his important institution-building program, Fayyad's departure would be a harsh setback for the Palestinian cause.

 Read the whole thing. I, for one, won't cry if he goes. 

Labels: Palestinian Authority corruption, Palestinian Authority donors, Salam Fayyad

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:14 PM 2 comments

Your tax dollars at work: 'Palestinian Authority' spending 6% of its budget paying 'salaries' to terrorists in jail

The world's economy may be in the toilet, but that doesn't stop transfers of funds to the 'Palestinian Authority' by the Obama administration and the Europeans. As long as they have money, the 'Palestinian Authority' continues to pay salaries to terrorists. I've reported this before, for example, here. But Channel 2 reported on Monday night with some specific figures for specific terrorists (full report in Hebrew with video here), and Times of Israel has some 'highlights' (Hat Tip: Andreas F).

Starting in 2003, Palestinian law mandated the dispensation of a monthly salary of NIS 1,000 ($250) to security detainees sentenced to up to five years in prison. The longer the sentence, the higher the pay. An inmate serving a life sentence was paid NIS 4,000 ($1,000) per month.

An amendment of the law in January 2011 enacted by Fayyad increased the salaries by up to 300%, Channel 2 reported.

A prisoner sentenced up to three years in prison now receives a base salary of NIS 1,400 per month, and for 3-5 years that rate increases to NIS 2,000, the report said. A NIS 300 bonus is added for a wife, and NIS 50 per child.

According to the Channel 2 report, the PA-funded salaries are an equal opportunity benefit; members of Fatah, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad all receive them.

Prisoners’ salaries also increase based on how many years they have served. Abdullah Barghouti, a Hamas bomb-maker who was sentenced in 2004 to 67 life terms for orchestrating the killings of 67 Israelis, receives a monthly stipend of NIS 4,000. In less than a year that figure will rise to NIS 6,000 ($1,500).

Another major Hamas terrorist figure, Abbas al-Sayyeed, convicted of planning the 2002 Park Hotel massacre, in which 30 Israeli civilians were killed as they sat down for a Passover meal, is paid NIS 12,000 ($3,000) per month.

I wonder if this has ever even been discussed by the Western governments that dispense aid to the 'Palestinians.' And that doesn't even count the 'martyrs.'

By the way, that's Abdullah Barghouti at the top of this post.

Labels: Palestinian Authority donors, Palestinian terrorists, prisoner salaries

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:43 AM 1 comments

And again: Netanyahu and Steinitz donate our tax money money to pay terrorists' salaries

Eight months ago, Israel decided to withhold money from the 'Palestinian Authority' due to its admission to UNESCO. No more. Now, with the 'Palestinians' once again plotting their unilateral admission to the United Nations, the Netanyahu-Lieberman-Steinitz government has decided to donate NIS 180 million to the 'Palestinian Authority' to pay salaries to terrorists for Ramadan. This is from the third link.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz made the decision, one of a number of gestures made since the beginning of the year in an attempt to improve relations with the PA and encourage its President Mahmoud Abbas to renew some kind of dialogue with Israel.

Senior government officials said that the decision to transfer the funds – an advance on money that is to be transferred in the coming months – was made before US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit last week, and was not the result of a US request.

In addition, the government’s economic cabinet recently decided to increase by approximately 5,000 the number of Palestinian construction workers allowed to work in the country.

The officials stressed that this quota would be subtracted from the number of foreign workers allowed into Israel and would not come at the expense of Israeli workers.

...

One senior official said this move was taken in the hope that it will “improve the atmosphere.”

Noting that the PA was currently facing a severe budgetary crisis, the official said that this money helped the PA pay its salaries before Ramadan, and was part of Israel’s policy of trying to “preserve the Palestinian economy.”

The last goodwill gesture Israel made to the PA was in May when it handed over the bodies of more than 90 terrorists. That move resulted from a meeting between Abbas and Netanyahu’s envoy, Yitzhak Molcho.

I don't see any improvement in the atmosphere as a result of the previous 'gestures' and I doubt there will be any improvement because of this one. It reminds me of Einstein's definition of stupidity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

I also fail to see why paying salaries to terrorists is a necessity for preserving the 'Palestinian' economy, and even if it were a necessity, it's not a role that Israel ought to be playing.

Finally, if you look at the numbers, this 'advance' was nearly two months' worth of transfers. At the same time, we have Israelis who pay taxes to our government who have no place to live.

What could go wrong?

Labels: martyrs salaries, Palestinian Authority donors, Palestinian economy, Palestinian terrorists, prisoner salaries

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:28 AM 0 comments

A friend in need?

Turkish columnist Burak Bekdil takes down the Turkish government for not following through on promises to assist the 'Palestinian Authority.'

Two years later, the Palestinians may be feeling differently. A Palestinian friend who lives in a European capital and has never hidden his admiration for his nation’s greatest Turkish saviors now thinks that the Turks used the Palestinians in an Orientalist power game. “We’ve been deceived by many nations, and now, once again, by the Turks,” he wrote to me recently. I replied that I was not the right person to contact and gave him Minister Davutoğlu’s office number.

Facts and figures... Yes. Every new day we hear from the prime minister that “we are the world’s 17th – and sometimes 16th – biggest economy and we are running fast to become one of the top 10.” Yet, at an international donors’ conference for Gaza in March 2009, the Turkish pledges stood at a mere $93 million (no typo here, ninety-three million dollars). That pledge accounted for only 2.1 percent of all international (mostly Christian!) pledges made at that conference which totaled $4.257 billion. But there is more.

If you examine the source country data of all 216 approved projects in the Gaza Strip, you will see a breakdown that is not really proportional to the Turkish extravaganza of boasting one of the world’s biggest economies as well as its brotherhood with Palestine. Of those 216 projects, 180 are run by international aid organizations, three by the World Bank, three by the Red Crescent, 13 by Germany, two by France, and one by each of Belgium, Egypt, Holland and Sweden. Turkish projects? None. Zero.

Ah, but there once was one. In the late 2000s, a Turkish business organization, TOBB, launched an “industry for peace” project which would have built an organized industrial zone in Jenin and created 5,000 jobs. In 2009, a memorandum of understanding was signed, with all the dignitaries smiling in Kodak-moment happy pictures. Another signature ceremony in 2010 and a pledge to build a similar industrial zone in Gaza followed. More Kodak-moment happy faces. The most recent news on the Jenin project appeared a few months ago when a Turkish official briefed Palestinian journalists on “the latest developments.” We journalists have the immediate reflex to know that this simply means there is no real progress to speak of.

And, by the way, any ideas about the Turkish-Palestinian foreign trade? After I saw that the annual two-way figure for 2010 was $29 million and that Palestinian exports to Turkey stood at $270,000, I didn’t bother checking the 2011 numbers.

Maybe the Turks are smarter than we've credited them with being. Would you give money to the corruptocrat 'Palestinians'?

Labels: Palestinian Authority corruption, Palestinian Authority donors, Palestinian donors' conference, Turkey

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:21 PM 1 comments

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 2 comments