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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Palestinian Authority faces cash crunch

2006-01-03

The Palestinian Authority (PA) has turned to Arab countries for help in ending what the Palestinian finance minister calls a suffocating financial crisis after European donors froze their funding. Abbas has been on a ~~begging~~ diplomatic tour of Gulf Arab states in recent days. He visited Qatar on Monday. Salam Fayyad, who recently stepped down as finance minister in order to run for parliament, said the PA was in dire straits. "We are in desperate need of Arab aid," he said.

Fayad, who is expected to return to the finance post after the 25 January election, said international aid had helped cover about one-third of a $1 billion deficit in the 2005 operating budget, and the Palestinians were searching for more help in covering the remainder. The Palestinians are heavily dependent on foreign aid from Western donors and Arab states. But with the exception of Saudi Arabia, Arab countries have largely failed to keep their financial pledges to the Palestinians.

Quicker to pledge than they are to actually pay up, are they?

Paleos are lucky the EU is around to pony up.

Posted by:Fred

#22 Anonymoose, I'd like you to expand on that first paragraph. "the same situation"..."the first Israeli governments filled with Jewish mobsters"... Huh?

Posted by: trailing wife 2006-01-03 20:56

#21 Gaza and the West Bank are in exactly the same situation that Israel was when the Jews moved in. And, to put things on an even more level footing, the first Israeli governments were filled with Jewish mobsters. And yet, in short order, the Jews were able to defend themselves against an Arab assault; and from that point on, they turned their country into a modern state.

So, what is keeping the Paleos down? Singularly, they have embraced hate and violence instead of working to improve their lot. Tried to steal what belonged to others rather than make wealth for themselves. Embracing propaganda instead of education. Weaponry instead of industry. Largesse instead of self-sufficiency. Dictatorship instead of democracy. Corruption instead of cooperation.

Now they must suffer the consequences of these decisions.

Posted by: Anonymoose 2006-01-03 17:58

#20 I think many "Arab" doners have realized that a Palestinian state would be a continuous drain on their budgets. Gaza and the West Bank have no industry, have no natural resources to speak of, and have little productive farmland or other export-income-generating activities. There's not much of an internal tax base, either. Gaza doesn't have a decent port, and the only land border the West Bank can use for export is through Jordan. Even if there were a stable government, the Paleo-stains would still need barrels of money just to continue to exist and provide minimum basic services. I think the Saudis and most of the rest of the Islamic world sees Palestine as a failure waiting to happen, and have decided to cut their losses. So sorry, no money today...

Posted by: Old Patriot 2006-01-03 15:05

#19 What no funds for 250$ a month to familier of suicide bombers?

Posted by: gromgoru 2006-01-03 14:19

#18 They just hit up the Magic Kingdom for a butt-load of petrodollars. Gives you that warm, fuzzy feeling to know that the PA won't be impacted by that rocket and mortar shortage after all, huh?

Thanks to our Wahabbi friends.

Posted by: mojo 2006-01-03 12:14

#17 ahhh Phil. That's such a nice dream. Whoa! Look at the clock! Shouldn't you be up by now? :-)

Posted by: 2b 2006-01-03 12:11

#16 Actually, I find this interesting.

I'd like to actually see, one day, real improvement in the lot of the Palestinians; and I'd like to see the rest of the Arab world, esp. the really rich ones, donate money to building houses in the West Bank, and for more than just the surviving parents of suicide bombers. For the _ordinary_ people.

I'd like to see them, for once, actually treat the Palestinians as people instead of as an excuse for prolonging the conflict, which naturally the Palestinians keep paying for...

Posted by: Phil 2006-01-03 11:50

#15 Yawn ... So, donor fatigue finally setting in with a vengeance, eh? All those houses that were built only to get bulldozed when they were allowed to be used as sniper nests. Go figure. Donate aid? Sorry, I've got something vastly more important on my agenda, like plucking nosehairs.

"We are in desperate need of Arab aid," he said.

When I run that through my nifty Captain Midnight Decoder Ringâ¢ what I get is:

"We need lots of untraced cash (Arab Aid) to finance more Jew killing."

Posted by: Zenster 2006-01-03 11:45

#14 They'd rather spend jizya than zakat...more fun to use dhimmidollars!

Posted by: Seafarious 2006-01-03 11:34

#13 "We are in desperate need of Arab aid," he said.

Arab aid, shit! They'll take it from anybody stupid enough to give it up. They're the crackwhores of the international community.

Posted by: tu3031 2006-01-03 11:30

#12 Cyber Sarge---Jihadi operations come under a different account. Special projects come under grant funds and are administered by Iran under the umbrellas of Hamas and Hizb'Allah.

Even the Saudis et al see the PA as losers. They will not be throwing good money down a rathole. Probably kept funds coming to the Arafish while he was swimming to avoid saving face. Once the Arafish went belly up, and saw the same olde thing, everyone except the EUniks pulled the plug.

Posted by: Alaska Paul 2006-01-03 10:48

#11 Does this mean they will have to cut back funding on Jihadist Operations?

Posted by: Cyber Sarge 2006-01-03 10:24

#10 Why should anybody care?
After all ... are they not scheduled for a rendezvous with some asteriods later in the year?

Posted by: 3dc 2006-01-03 09:40

#9 In retrospect the praise that Abbas received from Sec Rice a few months ago might have been the straw that prevents Iran and a few others from funding the PA.

That would be Kewl.

Posted by: mhw 2006-01-03 09:01

#8 "No, I'm not home. Lose my number, Mahmoud"

Posted by: Suha Arafat 2006-01-03 08:46

#7 Cue the nanoaccordions. Maybe George Soros can help.

Posted by: RWV 2006-01-03 08:28

#6 Now they are to find out they were just a means to an end. The other Arab and Muslim countries did'nt really want to help them anyway. Now that they are not sponsoring bombers as much, they are not wanted.

Posted by: plainslow 2006-01-03 08:12

#5 Perhaps the traditional donors would feel more pressure if the PA could show some enthusiasm for -- and perhaps even success at -- finding the $billion-plus their now-stable, fearless leader Arafat had squirreled away. Silly, I know, but some people are like that.

Posted by: trailing wife 2006-01-03 07:58

#4 The Paleos are about to discover no one cares anymore. They haven't for sometime. I guess they could hit Iran up for the money but that would really cause problems. The Arab pals they had don't give a damn and never did.

Posted by: Mahou Sensei Negi-bozu 2006-01-03 05:41

#3 The PA is in real trouble as the Gulf states are notorious for promising the Palestinian's money and not delivering it.

Posted by: bernardz 2006-01-03 05:07

#2 I did a quick calculation based the amount they needed to cover their monthly shortfall and I reckon they will have to cut between 25,00 and 50,000 from the payroll if they can't find extra funds. Mind you, you can probably cut those numbers in half due to the amounts that are just siphoned off into foreign bank accounts.

Still even 10,000 extra unemployed gunnies will significantly accelerate the slide into chaos.

Posted by: phil_b 2006-01-03 01:02

#1 What, being murderous asshats is no longer the lucrative career it once was?

I wonder how much money has been spent per capita on the Paleos over the last couple of decades. I bet it would be enough to make them individually quite wealthy if it all had not been squandered on jew-killing and corruption.

Posted by: SteveS 2006-01-03 00:45

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