'U.S. to Shoulder One-Third of Cost'- Secy of State Condi Rice
InfoliveTV reports: "Ninety delegations from the world's powers attended a one day conference in Paris to agree on an aid package worth billions of dollars to stabilize the Palestinian economy. At the start of the conference, French President Nikolas Sarkozy urged fast international support towards creating a Palestinian state. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called on Israel to impose a total freeze on settlements. As the money poured in, Hamas officials in Gaza, while denouncing the meeting, admitted they will apply the funds to pay 77,000 workers in Gaza."
The amount the Palestinians needed for 2008 was "around $1.6 to $1.7 billion," said US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, adding the US will shoulder one third of the financial burden, Ynet published.
"This is an historically large figure. I think this is the largest assistance package that we have ever done for the Palestinians," a senior US official said. According to YNet here's what some governments are reported to be donating:
$630 million- The European Union
$555 million- United States of America
$500 million- Saudi Arabia
$300 million- Britain, France, and Germany, each
$300 million- Kuwait and United Arab Emirates, each
$150 million- Japan
$140 million- Norway
$60 million- Spain
$10 million- Russia
Israel's Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni headed the Israeli delegation to the Conference of Donors. Israel was not named an official member of the conference, but it presence, Ynet was told, helps legitimize the process.
Some 3.4 billion dollars of Monday's pledges was to go to the Palestinians in 2008, the first year of Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's three-year recovery plan, diplomats said.
Fayyad promised that the donated funds would be transferred to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. "The money is meant for all Palestinians and will be budgeted according to the Palestinian government under the leadership of elected the elected president, President Abbas," Fayyad emphasized.
He also said that that the Palestinian government would monitor the manner in which the money was used.
Fayyad noted that, since the Oslo accords, the PA had received around $9 billion in aid, but said that there had been poor oversight on how the money was spent. He promised that the funds raised at the conference would be spent in a manner controlled and supervised by the international donors.
Analytical blog-publisher "Sultan Knish" disagrees. In "Palestinian Terrorist Billion Dollar Giveway Outrage!" he analyzes population, employment, and funding and deduces an increase in historic PA fraud.
Considering that the PA barely has any infrastructure, gets its power from Israel and has lost control and responsibility for the 1.5 million Arabs in Gaza leaving it with only half the population-- what exactly does Abbas need all that money for? ...
$150 million is just being given away as a blank check. Another 130 million is going into "job creation" and like all the billions advanced toward job creation is simply going to go toward Fatah's payments to the huge number of people it keeps on its payroll, including the militias attacking Israel and killing Israeli citizens. Another 40 million is being given away to the ministries directly to "improve their administration". 10 million will cover security for the American experts who will take a tour of the area because Abbas in reality controls nothing, including Fatah militias. ...
The PA "security forces" themselves range in the tens of thousands. The bulk of the PA's employees are really terrorists drawn from the Fatah and even the Hamas ranks. Local militias who enforce PA rule outside its base of power and Fatah loyalists in Gaza still being paid.
The money being sent to the PA really consists of salary checks for an army of murderous thugs responsible for the ongoing reign of terror against both Israelis and Arabs.
Weed out the rhetoric, and the lion's share of the money is going into the same old money pit, the PA Ministries, a nepotistic network of family organizations and militias that do absolutely nothing but employ a staggering number of people. ...
Where the money is really going is anyone's guess, but much of it does indeed go to salaries just not of civil service workers, but of the terrorist and thug militias that make up the real backbone of the PA. Much of that money goes into foreign bank accounts for leading PA figures and funds their lavish mansions and luxury automobiles.
The $5.6 billion covers the massive bribes and the graft that has enriched the PA leadership all throughout the years even as the PA's infrastructure has collapsed.
The one true employer in the West Bank is the Palestinian Authority itself funded by foreign aid, followed closely by international relief organizations such as the UNRWA which alone employs thousands of Palestinian employees and has virtually no actual outside UNRWA employees there anymore. Whatever remains of the Palestinian economy is parasitic on these.
Like the Palestinian state, the Palestinian economy is a corrupt and bloody fiction. Its real economy is underground, it is rooted in drugs and weapons smuggling and theft, particularly car theft from Israel.
While the international community pledges billions to keep on paying the terrorists to stay loyal to Abbas, that same community is insisting that Israel dismantle the checkpoints that keep those same terrorists from murdering Israelis.
Having rearmed Fatah's terrorists with assault rifles and ammunition, poured billions into their war chest, the world is now eagerly demanding that Israel lower the gates so they can put their new toys to use.
Analyst, Emmanuel A. Winston, lays out the motivations of the donors in economic and ethno-psycho-social benefits:
Strangely, although Islam and Christianity have been natural enemies through the centuries, they do cooperate in attempting to eliminate Israel and the Jews in it. On this they agree, although presently in Europe it has not reached the level (yet) where they can express their hatred too openly. The Arab Muslim immigrants take care of that as Germany and France tell their Jews not to look Jewish on the streets.
Europe also wishes to sell armaments to the Arabs. They also want the oil. Both of these motives drive their official government attitude toward Israel. However, underlying the urge for profit, there is always the taught, but now endemic, hatred of Jews and the Jewish State.
It’s no longer a question of hatred; it’s just a matter of degree. Right now, as Islam threatens their society, by extension, it increases Jew hatred. The European benefits are both money and satisfaction in their hatred of Jews. They would like to see Israel eliminated. After that it’s highly probable they would go to war with the Arab Muslims, hoping for U.S. participation. Expect some form of the Crusades or, as some refer to it, as a Clash of Civilizations.
One last thought: With the elimination of Israel, they could expunge their ever-present guilt for their active participation in the Genocidal murder of six million Jews. In other words: "Out of Sight - Out of Mind!"
Saudis' $1.4bn support for Palestinians now in doubt
ReplyDeleteBy Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem
The Independent.co.UK/ Dec 17
Saudi Arabia has so far refused to commit to budget support for the emergency government set up by the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, in a political move casting a shadow over Monday's international donors' conference in Paris.
The kingdom, along with the Gulf states which normally follow its lead, has declined ahead of the conference to promise around half the $1.4bn (£700m) a year needed to meet the Ramallah government's annual deficit, according to diplomatic and Palestinian sources.
One key reason is thought to be Saudi Arabia's reluctance to be seen to be throwing all its weight behind one of the two parties to the coalition deal which it brokered and which then collapsed in bloody internal conflict and Hamas's seizure of control in Gaza in June.
Palestinian sources are suggesting that this is one reason that of the total of $421m contributed by Arab donors to the Palestinians in budget support so far this year, only around $80m has been paid since June. Saudi Arabia has been the largest single Arab contributor to the Palestinian Authority budget since 2002.
While Western donors – mainly the EU and the US – have pledged between $700m and $800m, the main Arab donors withheld similar promises at a meeting convened by the French government in Paris.
Palestinian officials and diplomats are predicting the Saudis and the other states in the Gulf Co-operation Council may not decide their stance until the day of the conference – to be co-chaired by Tony Blair, the international community's envoy, and opened by the French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
(Groucho) Hammer:
ReplyDeleteNow remember, when the auction starts, if anybody says one hundred dollars---
Chico:
I-a say-a two hundred---
Hammer:
That's grand. Now, if somebody says two hundred---
Chico:
---I-a say three hundred!
Hammer:
That's great!
Hammer:
Now, we'll take lot #21. There it is. There is is, over there, right where that cocoanut tree is. Now what am I offered for lot #21?
Chico:
Two hundred dollars.
Hammer:
Why, my friend, there's more than two hundred dollars worth of milk in those cocoanuts---and WHAT milk, milk from contented cow-co-nuts. Who will say 300?
Chico:
Four hundred dollars. Five hundred dollars. Six hundred---seven hundred---eight hundred. What th' heck do I care?
Hammer:
What the heck do you care? But how about me? Sold to what the heck for eight hundred dollars. I hope all your teeth have cavities and don't forget abscess makes the heart grow fonder.
Arab 'Indian-givers' over contributions to PA
On Sunday, Israeli diplomatic officials said Arab states participating in Monday's international donor conference in Paris are likely to pledge generously to the Palestinian Authority, but not pay much of their pledges, partly so as not to antagonize Hamas.
According to the officials, this was likely to be especially true of Egypt, which has of late sought to get closer to Hamas and would like to see Hamas incorporated back into Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's government.
Israeli officials said that Jerusalem would be watching the sums pledged to the PA from the Arab world carefully and that the amount the individual countries actually paid would be a good indication of their real support for the Annapolis process.
Among the Arab countries that will be represented in Paris at the foreign ministerial level are Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Tunisia, Algeria, Lebanon, Morocco, Jordan and Egypt.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1196847353521&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull