Blood on OUR hands?

If you want to see if there's blood on your American hands, you'll just have to wait til next Tuesday when Fayyad posts his monthly report online.

Statement On Re-launching The Ministry Of Finance’s Website
By Salam Fayyad

In Ministry Of Finance (Palestine)
March 26, 2008

It is my honor today to announce the re-launching of the Ministry of Finance website. I would also like to announce our commitment to post on this site monthly reports on our financial operations on the 15th of each month.

This event is important first because it represents a fundamental step towards instituting transparency in the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) and establishing the foundations of good governance. Every citizen and each observer will be able to examine all of the PNA's financial transactions in a manner that eliminates any doubts about lingering corruption and financial mismanagement.

What distinguishes this event from many before it, though, is the level of capacity and professionalism that had to be attained in order to realize this achievement. Reform is not just a slogan, nor is political will – important as it is –enough to turn it into a reality. It requires a series of practical measures which require, in turn, a high level of effectiveness and institutionalization. Specifically, to be able to publish financial data regularly on pre-set dates requires the establishment of systems and the development of a capacity that make it possible to fulfill this commitment. Today's event is a significant step in consolidating financial trust in the PNA locally and internationally, especially as it comes in the wake of direct international budgetary support, including from Norway, France, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

Perhaps the most significant event in this area was the transfer of US $150 million by the United States to the Single Treasury Account (STA). This represents the largest sum of assistance to be transferred to the PNA in one tranche since the Authority’s inception.

Indeed, I can confirm that we received this payment yesterday, less than a week after the signing of the agreement that pertains to it.

Also worthy of a special note in this regard is the agreement we signed yesterday with our largest donor (the European Union) for the transfer of 176 million Euros [US $276.2 million] through the newly established financing mechanism (PEGASE). As you may know, PEGASE includes a window through which assistance will be channeled directly to the STA. I would say all of this carries with it a strong message of confidence in our system – a message which, no doubt, our people deeply appreciate.

[....]

We hope the re-launching of the Ministry of Finance website will consolidate the international community’s faith in the transparency and accountability of our government. We urge our donors once again to help us consolidate the integrity of our financial system by channeling all your budget support and development financing to the STA.

Allow me, Ladies and Gentlemen, to conclude where I started, and to address the Palestinian people directly.

The launching of the Ministry of Finance website is in itself a significant achievement. It is also proof of the extent to which we have gone in building capacity and developing the institutions and systems of good governance.

It is a national achievement that puts us on par with the most advanced countries in terms of transparency, accountability and sound financial management. It is an achievement that every Palestinian can be proud of.

In addition, what we are doing today lays the foundation and contours of the kind of Palestinian state that we seek. If we want to achieve a state worthy of the decades-long sacrifices of the Palestinian people, we should all –whether private citizens or future governments – preserve this and all similar reforms. This will reinforce our absolute, moral and legal right to independence, with institutions and systems of governance that turn the attainment of statehood from a political slogan into a tangible reality. This way, we will place before the whole world new facts on the ground, facts that it cannot ignore, in the form of viable, sustainable democratic institutions of governance, free from corruption and mismanagement.

Gag me. I can't bear this man. He's such a friggin' transparent liar. This is the same man that in August of last year accidentally transferred one year's salary to each of the 3,500 members of the Hamas Executive Force in Gaza. Oops!

Fayyad at the National Press Club, Washington DC, Feb. 11, 2208

[....]

Gaza is and always will be an integral part of our homeland and of our future state.

Let me be clear that we are totally against the firing of rockets against Israeli towns from Gaza. And just as I reject the firing of rockets and all forms of violence from Gaza, so too do I reject the disproportionality of Israel’s military actions and the collective punishment it has imposed on our people in Gaza.

[....]

The ultimate goals of the Palestinian people, today, are the same as they were back in 1988 when the PLO, under the leadership of our late President, Yasser Arafat, endorsed the two-state solution as the means to realize our national and individual aspirations: a sovereign, free and viable Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, and a just and agreed upon solution to the issue of refugees on the basis of UN General Assembly Resolution 194.

Fayyad on April 5, 2008:

“There is no solution for the troubles in Gaza, or for the rockets being fired from it,” Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said in an interview for Kuwaiti journal al-Rai on Saturday. “All we can do is transfer funds to the Gaza Strip.”

And P.S., what's this at the ATFP website, in little teeny-tiny print?

As of January 17, 2008 Mr. Rafi Dajani is no longer an employee of the American Task Force on Palestine nor is he associated with ATFP in anyway whatsoever.

Wouldn't you know it... allegations of financial misconduct.

(IsraelNN.com) Rafi Dajani, the executive director of America’s leading pro-Palestinian lobby, the American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP), was ousted recently following allegations of financial misconduct. The lobbyist, ATFP's second-ranking official and one of the most noted speakers on PLO affairs, is accused of being responsible for the disappearance of tens of thousands of dollars from the lobby's coffers.

Dajani has been removed from the ATFP's website, including quotes, photos, and videos, with the organization working quickly to distance itself from him.

The American Task Force on Palestine, headed by Ziad Asali, was established in 2004 and is considered to have strong ties to the White House and Congress - for two years, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was the guest speaker at the group’s gala dinner. The operational funds of the group come from donations.

See you later ... on the radio. At noon EST (I'll be on at 12:30 or so). www.zoaphilly.org