Arabs Not Honoring Financial Pledges to Palestinians

Despite billions of dollars pledged to it late last year, the Palestinian Authority is caught in a serious financial crunch, mainly due to the failure of Arab countries to fulfill their commitments, reports said on Tuesday. Economic growth and stability is seen as crucial to the Palestinian Authority’s ability to maintain control in the West Bank and to make peace with Israel. [ah, no money, no peace. right]

P.A. Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad was quoted as saying that the P.A. could be in trouble financially if donor countries, especially the Arab states, don’t transfer the funds that they pledged at the donor conference in Paris. Prof. Mordechai Kedar, Arabic expert from the BESA Center for Strategic near Tel Aviv, said the Arab States have in the past made pledges at conferences and not fulfilled them because they don’t trust the Palestinians.

It took Europe years to realize that the money it was sending to the P.A. was being funneled into private foreign accounts by P.A. officials. But the Arabs knew it right away. “The system that they run is costly – probably not the most efficient,” said Sadan who was formerly involved in attempts to help the Palestinians build their economy. “They have a state-like organization but they don’t have any revenues..."

Kedar noted that the Palestinians have received more aid over the years than Europe had received at the end of World War II. Between 1999 and 2005, the P.A. received more than $6 billion in foreign aid. The U.S. has been the largest single donor.

[why no revenues? Because their only industry is violence and victimhood. 70 years and counting... {6 billion in graft - who needs an economy?}]

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