By Arsen Ostrovsky, Algemeiner
In the last five years, the U.S. government has poured at least $4 billion in aid to the Palestinians, with very little to show in return – except more terror and corruption. Time has now long come to ask whether the U.S. should continue funding at all.
Last week, in a virtually unprecedented move, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton overruled a House Foreign Affairs Committee hold on $59 million in funding to the Palestinian Authority (PA), thus blatantly disregarding the integrity of Congress.
The money was ‘held’ by request of Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fl), largely out of concern it may reach the hands of Hamas and be used to commit acts of terror against Israel and the United States.
According to a State Department official, Secretary Clinton released the funds, because they were viewed as providing “critical support to the Palestinian people and those leaders seeking to combat extremism within their society and build a more stable future.”
Which “leader” might the State Department have been referring to when they spoke of combating extremism? The same PA President Mahmoud Abbas who has invited Hamas into his government?
According to the Congressional Research Service, since 2008, annual U.S. bilateral assistance to the PA has averaged over $600 million, including $513 million for the current budgetary year.
In addition, the U.S. is also the largest single-state donor to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), donating over $1 billion over the last five years to an agency that continues to perpetuate Palestinian economic dependency on foreign aid. UNRWA is unquestionably one of the greatest obstacles to peace in the Middle East.
Given the United States’ own financial woes, and with a peace process at a standstill, it is a timely occasion to ask what exactly has the American taxpayer received for spending $4 billion in aid to the Palestinians over the last five years.
President Abbas appears to have no interest or desire to resolve the conflict, repeatedly shunning Prime Minister Netanyahu’s offers of direct negotiations. Instead, Abbas has embraced Hamas, a group sworn to Israel’s destruction and designated as a terrorist organisation by the U.S.
Only last month, Majida Al-Masri, the Palestinian Minister of Social Affairs from Abbas’s Fatah party, said Palestinian unity and reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas was needed in order “to turn to the struggle for the liberation of Palestine – all of Palestine.” ‘All of Palestine’ of course includes the Jewish State of Israel.
Abbas, often touted as a “moderate”, has done nothing to stop the virulent anti-Israel and anti-Jewish incitement in PA controlled media and schools. Public squares and streets continue to be named after terrorists, and the Abbas-led PA is giving thousands of dollars to families of Palestinian terrorists in Israeli prisons and suicide bombers involved in attacks on Israel.
The PA is also cracking down on press freedoms in the West Bank, recently jailing two female journalists – one for exposing corruption in the Palestinian mission in France, while another for daring to criticise Abbas on Facebook.
And then there’s Abbas’ ongoing pursuit of unilateral statehood at the UN, notwithstanding President Obama’s expressed wishes to the contrary.
Corruption continues to rule the PA. The PA presidential elections that were supposed to be held two years ago have been repeatedly postponed byAbbas. In the meantime, he has consolidated his grip on power while sidestepping and usurping his own Prime Minister, Salam Fayyad on monetary oversight, most notably through the Palestine Investment Fund (PIF).
The PIF is a sovereign wealth fund created in 2003 to manage state assets in the wake of former President Arafat’s pervasive corruption. The PIF is meant to be “fully owned by the people of Palestine” and “financially and administratively independent”. However, Abbas has placed the PIF under his personal control by removing Fayyad’s oversight powers, and appointing his cronies onto the board and awarding lucrative contracts to his sons.
Since Abbas was elected President in 2005, an estimated $1 billion has gone missing from the PIF. In addition, construction and public relations firms run by Abbas’s sons have “won” U.S. government aid contracts in sham tenders worth over $2 million.
While the Palestinian people are dependent on foreign aid, the Abbas family has amassed a wealth estimated in the dozens of millions dollars, with lavish properties across the Middle East and investments throughout the world. Abbas, without the keffiyah, is in effect no different than Arafat, with corruption still rampant throughout the PA.
Those that oppose cutting aid to the Palestinians will argue that it will undo Prime Minister Fayyad’s impressive “institution building” and economic growth in the West Bank, which according to the latest IMF figures, is averaging 8.2% over the past four years. However, it’s important to keep in mind that very little economic activity could have been achieved without Israel’s security presence there. Were Israel to leave, the relative stability in West Bank would give way to violence and another power struggle between Hamas and Fatah (as it did in Gaza) and the economy would suffer again as a result.
In 2011 Fayyad declared: “The current expenditure has been reduced from $1.8 billion in 2008 to $1.1 billion in 2010 and we will gradually wean ourselves from [foreign] aid by 2013. Moreover, “[i]t is an important benchmark for reducing reliance on the need for external assistance,” he added. So one would have expected that in 2012, the PA would need even less foreign aid. But in March 2012, the World Bank warned that unless donor support is increased, the PA might not be able to continue to provide basic services to its people. So, where did all the money go?
On March 21, 2012, responding to protest that Fatah leaders have neglected Gaza, their spokesman Ahmad Assaf announced that the PA has spent over $7 billion in Gaza since Hamas took over in 2007. This includes $120 million each month (half of the PA budget) to pay the salaries of around 80,000 civil servants in Gaza. However, many of these so-called ‘civil servants’ actually work for Hamas.
The U.S., together with the World Bank and other donors, have relied on Fayyad’s promise that aid money would not reach Hamas or be used for any terrorist activity, but even Fayyad himself has stated that controlling Palestinian finances “is virtually impossible.” And given that money is fungible, there is simply no way of guaranteeing that U.S. aid dollars to the PA are not ending up in the hands of Hamas in Gaza.
Some also contend that U.S. aid is necessary in order to leverage U.S. power on the Palestinians vis-a-vis negotiations with Israel. However, $4 billion in U.S. aid has clearly bought us very little leverage, judging by Washington’s inability to get Abbas, and more recently Fayyad, to even sit in the same room as Netanyahu.
The Palestinians’ ‘Arab brothers’ across the Middle East have thus far failed to provide financial support to the PA, and are unlikely to jump on the aid bandwagon any time soon, even in the absence of U.S. funding. Notwithstanding some regular political posturing, with winds of the ‘Arab Spring’ blowing, the plight of the Palestinians barely registers on the radars of Arab donors.
Secretary Clinton’s release of funds to the PA is yet another sad example of how the U.S. funds corrupt regimes in the Middle East and elsewhere to the detriment of its own national security and that of its allies.
Arsen Ostrovsky is a Legal Fellow at the American Center for Democracy.
Made in Israel.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-C3UYq-UxA&feature=youtu.be&utm_source=Copy+of+Donation+Letter+from+ISRAEL21c&utm_campaign=Made+in+Israel&utm_medium=email
I hope Ted removes the troll.
Wrong. Most of Israel’s wealth, science and technology is created within Israel, read “start up nation”. The rest of the world is trying to learn from Israel’s example which is why that book has been translated into several languages. As a typical marxist you speak lies.
@ jules:
Jules,
I can see that you are new here. Of a certainty, Yamit is not a beggar — he is quite sincere, in believing the US should take its money home and mind its own business, and I agree with him. In all fairness, though, the US should take ALL its money home, including aid to fill the pockets of rich Arabs who profit from continually attacking Israel.
Your suggestion about making Israel a state is not as off-base here as you might suppose. I’ve thought of it myself. The bottom line, though, is that God will not allow such a thing. The exile is over, and God does not intend for the Jewish people to become exiles in their own country. On other matters, you said,
It’s not quite that simple. Do you think the wealthy will just roll over and die like that? If we start attacking their assets, they will simply spirit them away overseas. They run the show, not any mythical “99%”. The 99% never really do get in power; at best, they swap the old 1% for a new 1%. Obama has his war chest full with the greatest wealth of special-interest and corporate campaign contributions in history. He REAPPOINTED Bernanke and Geithner, and all the foxes who have been raiding America’s chicken coop. What’s more, I think Yamit will agree with me that the Republicans don’t offer anything significantly better; but for Israel’s sake, we could elect Bozo the Clown; and if that meant Obama would be put out of action, this could not be worse than the situation we have now; it might even be a bit better.
Thank you for your interest in Israel, and in America. If it’s any consolation to you, the whole world is about to choke on its own vomit. As the Bible says,
“The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble;
He knows them who trust in Him.”
yamit82 Said:
If I may interject, the US has a couple of “terrirories”, like Puerto Rico where there is all kinds of discussion about assigning themselves statehood. Nobody seems to be asking the people of the US if they want Puerto Rico as a state, a place where English is not the language. We should cut loose these “territories” and never mind statehood. Let them become independent countries.
Israel would have no place as a state in the United States because of the fundamental separation of church and state that governs the United States. There is no such separation in Israel and nor should there be, it is justifiably a Jewish state.
Ed Katz, I hate communism. I am Protestant. Socialist like Jesus.
@ jules:
Not likely!!!
You are right
So don’t come to us to bail you out. But you will.
Is there any doubt that Jules is a Communist? Bet the house on it.
Laura Said:
Do your homework Laura, Israel’s wealth is creaeted outside Israel, as are most of it’s scientific innovations you talk of. The 1% are part of this problem. The constant calls for war, Iraq and Iran. It’s cheaper to just colonise Israel or make it an American state.
Another comment was lost. Please release it Ted.
@ jules:
jules you may be very surprised by who actually benefits more from our relationship with Israel. You say beggers can’t be choosers as if Israel is some third world country receiving handouts rather than one of the most technologically and scientifically innovative nations in the world providing America with advanced technology, training for its military and intelligence information. The loans we provide Israel are an investment.
@ jules:
Typical leftist tripe. These are the producers. The ones milking our country are the welfare recipients.
Please Ted release my comment.
I’m so sick of this notion that Israel is this big drain on America because of the loans it receives with the stipulation that Israel purchases American military hardware. I’ve made this point over and over again but of course it always falls on deaf ears with Israel’s detractors. Meanwhile we get absolutely nothing from giving money to the PA, money which truly is a handout, to terrorists no less.
How Israel Helps Defend American Lives
http://realisraelblog.com/2012/02/07/how-israel-helps-defend-american-lives/
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2011/06/21/israels-contribution-to-saving-american-lives/
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=17&ved=0CFEQtwIwBjgK&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DZoT8T_AEzJs&ei=ReCST9_wKYTv6AHvlKHGBA&usg=AFQjCNHkGFwH6aP_n5LxUdEXhriDcIF_Bg
US Marines Train in Israeli Warfare Camp
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/insideisrael/2011/August/US-Marines-Train-in-Israel/
Yamit82 you are very rude, please apologise for calling me a SOB. Beggars cannot be choosers.
@ jules:
I’m glad you first thought to ask us what we want? You arrogant SOB.
But since you brought it up and given your choices, I say you should “Cut Israel Loose Totally”
Why do we even have to ask? Anyone in government who suggests sending aid to Palestinians should be laughed at and driven out of office.
James B – Canada Said:
I want what’s best for the US. It’s not just the aid, it’s the congress and the 1% problem. Nearly all of American’s wealth is in a few hands and the people do not benefit. I’m all for cutting off aid, and freezing the bank accounts of the 1% and distributing the wealth to Americans. I’m all for cutting off aid to the Arab states too, at least till we get our own country in order. If the GOP want a candidate to win, this is what they should get, it would be a vote winner, and Obama would be out. Sarah Palin is a good bet. Or Allen West. Or both. They would support this, and win, if they came in on this ticket. Pastor Haggee can minister in Israel, we’d be rid of these Jesus is coming nuts because the Kingdom of Jesus is not of this world, they’d be welcome in Israel since they live for it, and the rest of us here will not have to worry about giving aid, as Israel will be part of the US then. WE can change the citizenship laws to let Christian Zionists take up Israeli citizenship, which they would gladly. This solution will work, only because there are millions of Christian Zionists who’d be happy to move to Israel and take care of our bases their. We can change Israel’s citizenship laws to grant equality to Americans. After all Israeli’s can be American, but only Jewish Americans can be Israeli. Hardly fair on our Christian brothers who support Israel.
No GOP candidate has thought of this plan yet. It is a winning combination. Take the 1% and freeze accounts. Colonise Israel, with Hagee’s soldiers.
@ James B – Canada:
Yes James B – extending what you said above, it’s the mindless, glib, one-liners that define the dolts and fools I mentioned above.
I wonder if Jules is aware that it was Mr. Peanut, Dhimmi Carter that put Israel on the foreign aid payroll in return for its withdrawal of the Sinai. I doubt it.
If Israel were to take it back, as it should, I know what Jules will write either here or on any Jew hating website such as RT.com, etc..
No doubt Jules supports giving money to every disgusting arab muslim country to defend itself against the evil zionists.
ALL foreign aid will be cut eventually.
Depending on which web site you examine, priceoil.com or usdebtclock.org, the USA will soon reach 16 trillion in recognized debt. This does not take into account the non-recognized debt of future pensions and medical benefits for life for the military.
1/7 people survive with the help of food stamps.
Cut loose Israel totally? Yes. But all will have to be cut loose.
BlandOatmeal Said:
Agree. We should move our bases to Israel and send Christian Zionists who want this job to join the Knesset. This way, Israel will be part of the USA, and the Arab states will live with this, as will Evangelicals who support Israel. They will be happy, the aid will be ours, we won’t be pouring it anywhere. We should either cut Israel loose totally, or make it a state of the USA. A colony, like the Virgin Islands.
@ jules:
Jules,
CHECK YOUR FIGURES.
According to the list, Israel ranks #3, after Pakistan and Afghanistan; and Israel’s enemies, such as Egypt and the “West Bank”, altogether receive more than Israel.
I am not an advocate of pouring American money into Israel nor other countries; on these matters, I largely agree with Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul, whom you should be familiar with. If money is to be spent abroad like this, though, it is good that it at least be spent even-handedly, which means that Israel should at least be given enough to protect itself from her enemies that we are arming. When it comes to arming the PA, though, we are arming not only Israel’s enemies but also our own. This is the foolishness that Congress has tried to address, but which Hillary Clinton is adamant in supporting.
@ jules:
Funny – I thought GM was the biggest recipient of US aid; or was it AIG?
Time to reclaim America from dolts and fools…
This is rich, the biggest burden on our country is the 1% milking our country, and Israel the biggest recipient of aid. Time to reclaim America from usurpers.