Editor's Letter
Ask
Financial Crisis
Attorney
Ken Gross
about...
Overzealous U.S. Aid?
I is a burning question and fuels one of the great debates of
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: How much in support dol-
lars should America give the Palestinian Authority (P.A.)?
I'm perplexed because I try with compassion to distinguish
between the 2-million Palestinian people who live in the
West Bank and the Palestinian leadership that presides from
Ramallah. Israel has resorted to political handstands in trying
to coax P.A. President Mahmoud Abbas back to the negotiat-
ing table in search of a durable peace
agreement. It wasn't enough that Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
authorized an unprecedented
10-month partial freeze on Jewish
construction in the West Bank and
may grant a shorter freeze to jump-
start talks. All the while, the P.A. has
done nothing to show it wants peace
‘611h,
as it maintains an anti-Zionist sound-
Robert Sklar
ing board of our times in print, on
Editor
broadcasts, in music videos, through
sermons and via schoolbooks.
"Contrary to the P.A.'s moderate statements to the West, its
statements to its people in Arabic continue to delegitimize
Israel's existence, deny Israel's right to exist, define the conflict
with Israel in religious terms, promote hatred through demoni-
zation and libels, and glorify terror and violence,' reports the
Israel-based Palestinian Media Watch, my reality check when
it comes to the P.A., moderate certainly when compared to
Hamas, the Iranian proxy in Gaza City, but still laden with ter-
rorist factions and tendencies.
PMW's Incitement Watch study, released in October, found
that the May-August proximity talks created hope for renewing
the peace process, but there was no change in the quality of the
messages emanating from the P.A. or Abbas' Fatah party.
"The conditions, principles and expectations set by the U.S.
and the Quartet for accepting the Palestinian Authority as a
partner in the peace process continue to be violated?' the study
found.
So I'm troubled by President Obama awarding the P.A. an
extra $150 million in direct budgetary aid beyond the more
than $1.5 billion that Congress has authorized over the past
two years. The people under P.A. rule certainly can use the
additional support just to survive amid the corruption and
indoctrination that are hallmarks of the Abbas administration.
The money is ticketed for paying down debt
as well as delivering services and security. It
also will expand Palestinian access to schools,
clinics and clean drinking water in both the
West Bank and the Gaza Strip, according to
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
But how long can we blindly throw U.S.
taxpayer dollars to the P.A., let alone Hamas,
Hillary Clinton and trust that the money will be spent pru-
dently and with a humanitarian wink?
Moreover, I wonder — often — whatever happened to the
millions that Palestine Liberation Organization chairman Yasser
Arafat stole from the Palestinian people before he died in 2004.
The incoming chair of the U.S. House Foreign Relations
Committee, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., opposes the extra aid
to the P.A. and is on record saying; "So long as Palestinian lead-
ers keep being financially rewarded by the U.S. unconditionally,
they will have zero reason to change their ways and truly com-
mit to peace. It is long past time to hold Ramallah accountable."
'
Indeed, it is!
Ros-Lehtinen calls sending U.S. tax dollars
to the P.A. to help cover its budget needs a
bailout, an accurate description. But again, I
get concerned about the people on the street
when we talk strictly in political terms about
what's really a humanitarian issue. That's
where Ros-Lehtinen's pitch that we begin
Ileana Ros-
to hold Ramallah accountable resonates.
Lehtinen
She rightly asserts that Palestinian leaders
continue to ignore "their commitments, under international
agreements and requirements outlined in U.S. law, including
dismantling the Palestinian terrorist infrastructure, combating
corruption, stopping anti-Israel and anti-Semitic incitement,
and recognizing Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state?'
The congresswoman, elected in 1989, is co-author of the
2006 Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act, which hinged U.S. aid on
Palestinian leaders renouncing and curtailing violent extrem-
ism, heeding existing accords (weak as they are) and affirming
Israel as a sovereign state.
The Obama administration's approval
of another $150 million to the P.A. brings
overall 2010 U.S. support and investment
aligned for the Palestinians (in both the West
Bank and Gaza) to upwards of $700,000.
In announcing the increase, Clinton told
Bloomberg News, "This underscores the
strong determination of the American people
Barack Obama and of this administration to stand with our
Palestinian friends even during difficult eco-
nomic times as we have here at home"
That spin makes us out to be heroes; and much of this aid
likely goes to good use. But do we really know some isn't fund-
ing the dark side of the P.A.?
U.S. aid to the P.A. has averaged $400 million a year since
Arafat's death, growing to $980 million last year to meet the
humanitarian emergency in Gaza following its 22-day war
between Israel and Hamas.
The Zionist Organization of America put this in perspective:
In the 1990s, during the Oslo Accords years and before the P.A.
had rejected the Clinton administration peace proposal and
reinstituted a terror war against Israel, the U.S. gave the P.A. $75
million a year, half the amount now announced in additional
aid by the Obama administration.
Above all else, ZOA National President
Morton Klein said, Abbas and the P.A. "have
not fulfilled their commitment to arrest ter-
rorists, outlaw terrorist groups and end the
incitement to hatred and murder within the
P.A.-controlled media, mosques, schools and
youth camps — all feed terrorism?'
The ZOA went on to illustrate how Abbas,
Morton Klein
Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad and other
senior P.A. officials have engaged in anti-
Israel acts over the past two years alone — from the P.A. nam-
ing schools, streets and sports teams after home-bred terrorists
to accusing Israel of harvesting the organs of dead Palestinians,
and from Abbas' Fatah party refusing to accept Israel's sover-
eignty while courting the powerbrokers of Iran, the greatest
threat to world stability.
I echo Klein's belief that it's impossible to reach peace with
the P.A. if it "honors and rewards families for raising sons who
murder Israelis rather than arrest such terrorists and condemn
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Editor's Letter on page 6
November 25 • 2010
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