Israel... SOLD! for a measly $ 7.4 BILLION
PARIS — Eighty-seven countries and international organizations pledged $7.4 billion in aid to the Palestinians on Monday, in the most ambitious fund-raising effort to help Palestinians create a viable, peaceful and secure state of their own in more than a decade.The total was pledged over the next three years. The total for 2008 alone, according to the conference’s final declaration, was $3.4 billion.
With Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice representing the United States at the one-day conference here, the Palestinians had hoped to secure $5.6 billion in budgetary and development support over the next three years.
The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, had told the conference that a “moment of truth” had arrived, urging the world to increase its aid for Palestinians — or risk disaster.
“Without this support, without the payment of aid that will allow the Palestinian treasury to fulfill its role, we will be facing a total catastrophe in the West Bank and Gaza,” Mr. Abbas said.
In appealing for the financing, Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, an economist who is the appointed head of the Palestinians’ caretaker government, formally presented his new recovery plan for economic, institutional and security reform for a future Palestinian state.
The United States pledged $555 million, up from $75 million this year. “The Palestinian Authority is experiencing a serious budgetary crisis,” Ms. Rice said. “This conference is literally the government’s last hope to avoid bankruptcy.”
However, the American pledge was misleading, since much of the money had been announced previously by the White House but has not been approved by Congress.
The European Union, the largest aid donor to the Palestinians, pledged $650 million for 2008; separately, France pledged $300 million, Germany $200 million and Britain $500 million over three years. Norway pledged $420 million for the three years.
In a move significant both practically and symbolically, the Saudis pledged $500 million over three years.
The donors’ meeting is a high-profile effort to build on the momentum of peace talks with Israel last month, which were hosted by the Bush administration in Annapolis, Md. Those talks were the first serious negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians in years, and the two sides pledged to seek a final peace agreement by the end of 2008.
It was the largest Palestinian donor meeting since 1996, and the latest in a string of aid-raising events for the Palestinians over the years. The Palestinians are one of the highest aid-dependent populations in the world; government salaries account for 27 percent of the Palestinian Authority’s gross domestic product, according to a new World Bank report.
Despite the new aid pledges, the Palestinian Authority’s economy will continue to contract unless Israel eases its blockage of the Gaza Strip and removes key internal checkpoints to allow Palestinians to move freely in the West Bank, the World Bank cautioned in its report.
The World Bank estimated that without such measures, the Palestinian gross domestic product would probably contract by 2 percent annually over the next five years. If Israel does ease the restrictions, and if the Palestinians put promised reforms in place, the economy could grow 5 percent a year, the report added.
Mr. Abbas, in his remarks, appealed to Israel to take a number of concrete measures, including a freeze on all settlements in the Palestinian territories, the dismantling of what he identified as “wildcat settlements,” a halt to construction of Israel’s barrier of separation and the release of more Palestinian prisoners.
The fund-raiser on Monday was also an opportunity for President Nicolas Sarkozy of France to play diplomatic maestro, backslapping delegates and greeting Ms. Rice with kisses on both cheeks as he opened the conference.
“Our aim is not to perpetuate assistance to the Palestinians indefinitely,” said Mr. Sarkozy, who calls himself a close friend of Israel.
To that end, he called on Israel to allow freedom of movement of people and goods and to immediately freeze all settlement construction on the West Bank.
“I must insist on this point: it is in Israel’s best interest, provided its own security is not threatened, to foster a normal existence in the West Bank,” he said. “This alone will enable the Palestinians to work, to stop ruminating on their humiliation, to curb the violence and trafficking and to regain their zest for life.”
As for the Palestinians, Mr. Sarkozy told them to live up to their promises to maintain “law and order over its territory,” and to overhaul their security services.
This was not a day of grand gestures by either the Israelis or the Palestinians. The Israeli government, under a weakened prime minister, Ehud Olmert, has been unwilling to confront Israeli settlers, offend the partners in his coalition government or challenge the country’s security elite.
The Palestinian leadership has even greater constraints. Hamas seized control of Gaza in June, leaving Mr. Abbas, the elected head of the Palestinian Authority, in charge only of the West Bank. In the West Bank, his Fatah movement is divided. Mr. Fayyad, who essentially runs the Palestinian Authority, is not a member of Fatah and has little organized political support.
Hamas, whose declared goal is to destroy the Jewish state, was not invited to the pledging conference. In Gaza, a Hamas spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, branded it a “declaration of war against the Hamas movement.”
Maybe I'm wrong that Israel was just sold out from under the Jewish people. But what am I supposed to think? That Abu Mazen will do as Sarkozy suggests and keep his promises? That he's not going to take that money and use it to kill Israelis? That he's going to follow the roadmap and turn on his brothers in Hamas? I can't believe that's even possible, much less feasible, and I sure as hell wouldn't wager $7.4 BILLION on it.
"We are one people, and even if there are differences of opinion among us, the homeland unites us. We are brothers, and we [must] not reject anyone or accuse the other of heresy... [We] must not [spill] Palestinian blood. Dialogue is the only language we must use among ourselves. Since our struggle began and until our homeland was liberated, we [always] aimed our guns at the occupation, and that is our legitimate right, but we must not aim our guns at one another..."(Abu Mazen speech January 11, 2007 - as reported in the PA's Al-Hayat Al-Jadida January 12)
You see? They think it's their "legitimate right" to kill Jews, and the world apparently agrees and wants to help. As far as I can tell, this is nothing less than a catastrophe. I beg you to convince me otherwise.
AfterWords: I'm so stunned. How could this be, that Israel is out of luck, the "donors" are out $7.4 billion, and the Palestinians take all? They win everything? They don't have to risk anything, contribute anything, or pay anything back? They just repeat the same old promises that they've already broken, pocket the $7.4 billion, make more demands, and continue to attack our children? Just like that?
And how did they manage to get 32% more than they said they wanted?
Posted by: Yidwithlid | Monday, 17 December 2007 at 10:41 PM
Posted by: Jack | Monday, 17 December 2007 at 11:46 PM