...an idea whose time has gone...
agency for Paleostinian refugees says a donors conference has raised enough money to keep its operations in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about
oppressionand
disproportionate response...
, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria and Leb
...an Iranian satrapy currently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else? It is the home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
running until the end of September.
Philippe Lazzarini told the pledging conference at its opening yesterday morning that UNRWA only had funds until the end of August.
At the end of the conference, he tells news hounds the total amount in pledges won’t be known until the following week. But he says he is confident there will be enough new money in its $850 million annual budget to keep the agency running for another month and pay its 30,000 staff who provide education, primary health care and other development activities to about 6 million Paleostinian refugees.
Another whole month? Be still my heart.
UNRWA has been tight on funds since Israel alleged that 12 of the agency’s 13,000 workers in Gaza participated in Hamas
..always the voice of sweet reason...’s October 7 massacre in southern Israel that sparked the ongoing war in Gaza. The agency terminated the contracts of all those employees. Still, 16 countries suspended funding UNRWA, amounting to about $450 million.
Israel has long accused UNRWA of funneling money into Hamas’s coffers and letting the terror group use the agency’s facilities. The IDF has found a Hamas data center located directly beneath UNRWA headquarters in Gaza City, in addition to numerous findings indicating the use of the agency’s assets for terror purposes.
Lazzarini tells news hounds that 14 donors have officially resumed funding and he believes "very soon" a 15th country — the United Kingdom — will come back.
The United States, which was the biggest donor to UNRWA, providing the agency with $340 million in 2022 and several hundred million in 2023, was among the countries halting funding. The US Congress has prohibited any payments to UNRWA until March 25, 2025.