Moadim l'Simcha, a good holiday to all of you. This is the first time I have been online since the day on which access to the computer is prohibited ended at sundown last night. I was busy with family matters.
A reminder that here in Israel there is only one holiday day at each end on which work is prohibited (rather than the two there are overseas), and therefore, I can be online on Friday afternoon.
It seems that Western donors - who have been asked to finance the 'reconstruction' of Gaza over and over again only to see their money go for weapons - may finally have had it with Hamas and its leadership. The donor countries are said to be suffering from 'fatigue.'
To that end, a Western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, warned there was "considerable donor fatigue."
"We have seen infrastructure projects that we have contributed to
which have been destroyed," the diplomat said, adding that skepticism
had existed even before the recent conflict.
Ample evidence has proven that Hamas uses UN and other aid money, as well as materials,
to build terror tunnels into Israeli territory with the aim of
attacking Israeli citizens - instead of providing buildings to its own
citizens.
[A] network of over 30 tunnels was found during the
ground offensive, with each tunnel costing roughly $3 million to build.
For every Hamas terror tunnel, the IDF stated, there was enough building
materials to build 86 homes; seven mosques; six schools; or nineteen
medical clinics.
Meanwhile, Hamas has begun to rebuild terror tunnels into Israel on
foreign aid money - but despite this, the UN already joined the PA in making a call for $550 million to rebuild Gaza.
But it seems that the West isn't 'fatigued' enough. Despite the 'donor fatigue,' the West is accepting the 'Palestinians' narrative without question.
Earlier this week, Hamas and the PA met in a unity government meeting
in Gaza to present the pretext of the PA being in charge of the
going-ons in Gaza - a stunt the international community praised - and PA
"foreign minister" Riyad al-Malki was confident the message was enough.
"Our initial predictions are that the (donor) conference will be a big success," he said this week.
But a second diplomat, who did not want to be named, said the
Gaza cabinet meeting was "not enough to reassure donors" - even if it
was enough to reassure the political machine.
Here's hoping that the donors' conference is a resounding failure.
Any of you who thought that Prime Minister Netanyahu had finally learned to say 'no' to the Left after all these years are sorely mistaken.The Primee Minister folded again on Tuesday, providing the 'broke' 'Palestinian Authority' with NIS 400 million (a little more than $108 million) to pay terrorists' salaries. This is from the first link.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu decided on Tuesday evening to transfer to the
Palestinian Authority some NIS 400 million Israel collected last month in tax
revenue for the PA, but withheld in response to the Palestinian statehood
upgrade move at the UN in November.
A source in Netanyahu’s bureau said
the decision was for a one-time transfer and was due to the economic hardships
facing the PA.
Netanyahu met on Monday in Jerusalem with Quartet envoy
Tony Blair, where this issue was raised. The US has also raised the issue with
Jerusalem.
Government sources rejected speculation that the move was a
confidence-building measure toward the PA taken in the wake of the recent Israeli
election to try and create a more positive atmosphere.
The sources also
denied the move was related to the coalition-building steps and the likelihood that Yesh Atid, which
has called for promoting talks with the Palestinians, is to be a key member of
the new coalition.
Further transfers to the PA of the tax revenues would
be evaluated on a month-bymonth basis, sources said.
...
Netanyahu’s decision rolls back an
announcement former foreign minister Avigdor Liberman made on December 10 that
Israel would not transfer a shekel of tax revenue to the PA for the next four
months. Liberman said the PA owed Israel NIS 6 billion, which included NIS 900m.
that the PA owed to Israel for electric and water bills, and NIS 700m. that was
owed for funds advanced in the summer to pay PA salaries.
Fellow Israelis, look for our electric rates to go up to pay off the Electric Company on the 'Palestinians' behalf. What could go wrong?
Poverty rate in Washington DC worse than in Arab Judea and Samaria
With the 'Palestinians' looking for more handouts, this ought to give American and European lawmakers some pause: The Arab-occupied areas of Judea and Samaria, which are under the control of the 'Palestinian Authority,' have a lower poverty rate than Washington DC.
But do “Palestinian People” really need billions more in aid? The World Bank report for 2011 found that only 16 percent of the West Bank under PA control was living below the poverty line.
How serious is a 16 percent poverty rate? It’s better than the poverty rate in Washington D.C. which hit 18.9 percent. That means that politicians in Washington D.C. are diverting money that could have been used to help needy Americans a few miles from their offices, to help the comparatively better off terrorist populations in the West Bank.
Contrary to the barrage of news stories on the suffering of the Palestinians, the poverty rate for America and the West Bank aren’t that far apart. The California poverty rate is at 15.3 percent. And the national average at 14.3 percent is hardly that much better.
If a 16 percent poverty rate requires billions in international aid– then where is Washington D.C.’s international aid. Why isn’t there a UN aid facility distributing food near Foggy Bottom? And if being a failed state with no budget discipline requires international aid, then where are California’s aid pledges?
Many of the PA’s chief donors have poverty rates in the same range. Some are even worse off. Greece’s poverty rate is at 20 percent. Spain’s is nearly as high. And 17 percent of the EU population is considered to be at risk of poverty. Even Germany’s strong economy still has a 15.5 percent poverty rate. A few percentage points away from the West Bank.
But most damningly Israel’s poverty rate is nearly 24 percent. Worse than in the Palestinian Authority. About half those numbers come from its Arab population, which unlike their cousins in the Palestinian Authority, aren’t the beneficiaries of vast amounts of aid.
What’s the West Bank’s economic secret? 16.9 percent unemployment, a better number than among many of its international donors, funded by those same donor countries.
The dirty secret of the Palestinian Authority is that it is a wholly subsidized enterprise paid for by American and European taxpayers. And most of the money goes to the same place that it does in California– to the local government and its vast army of employees and their pockets.
Read the whole thing. And then call your representative and ask him or her why your taxes are being used to fund the 'Palestinian Authority.'
Rick Richman asks a question that Congress ought to be asking:
The last time the Palestinians went to the UN, forcing a U.S. veto, they were reportedly warned there would be consequences. As they prepare to go again, perhaps it is time to raise a basic question: Why is it in the U.S. interest to continue to support an entity that has repeatedly refused offers of a state, failed to dismantle terrorist groups, clings to a deal-killing “right of return,” has for more than two years been unwilling to engage in peace negotiations without preconditions, and has become a money hole?
It seems that the 'Palestinian Authority' is having a few financial problems for a change.
Facing financial difficulties, the Palestinian Authority will pay only half salaries to its civil servants for June, PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad announced on Sunday.
The half salaries will be deposited in the employees’ bank accounts on Wednesday.
Fayyad attributed the crisis to failure of donor countries to meet their financial obligations to the Palestinians.
He noted that his government has nevertheless succeeded in reducing its reliance on international aid to less than one billion dollars a year.
In the past, he said, the PA government used to get nearly two billion dollars a year from the international community.
Fayyad said that the PA was now conducting consultations with Palestinian banks to persuade them not to collect full loan payments from civil servants.
He said that the PA government preferred to pay half salaries than postpone the payments entirely.
“We’ve reached a point where we can no longer delay the salaries or take loans from the banks,” Fayyad told reporters. “That’s why we decided to pay half salaries with the hope that the employees would display understanding.”
Fayyad added that the main reason behind the financial crisis in the PA was failure of the international community to provide funds. He said that last year the PA’s deficit reached $100 million. Since the beginning of this year, the deficit has reached $30 million each month, he revealed.
And someone thinks they're ready to be a state?
The 'Palestinian Authority' financial crisis is not because they don't get enough international aid. It's because they continue to pay thousands of 'employees' in Gaza to stay home and do nothing, and because instead of developing an economy for the last 18 years, they've developed terrorists and armed them. At what point will the world say enough is enough? (Unfortunately, probably only once the State of Israel no longer exists, God forbid).
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
