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The attached link and portion of the text is a scathing indictment of Palestinian abuse and mismanagement of the welfare money they are showered with. The article is highly critical (and rightly so), of the US government (my government), not demanding accountability from the PA regarding the disposition of our money. I'm afraid my government is lacking in that regard.
The real issue is that we have allowed the pal thieves and beggars to accept their mismanagement and thievery as an entitlement.
I'm sure we will hear from the usual suspects the same litany of worn out excuses about oppression, but let's be honest, if you want to see real oppression, try being a Jew or Christian in any Muslim majority nation.
U.S. Complicit with Palestinian Authority Budgeting Mischief Picking apart their finances, and how U.S. aid ends up with Hamas
U.S. Complicit with Palestinian Authority Budgeting Mischief: Picking apart their finances, and how U.S. aid ends up with Hamas. - Jewish Policy Center
The Palestinian Authority is crying poverty again, complaining about a decrease in expected levels of foreign aid that will force Palestinians into penury or heaven forbid tax increases. The Palestinian public is in no mood for that, according to the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research.
In a recent poll,48% of the respondents rejected solving Palestinian fiscal problems by increasing taxes or by forcing the early retirement of public sector employees. Asked what they would do, 27% would dissolve the PA itself and 52% would enter negotiations with Israel "in order to obtain greater international financial support." The poll notes, however, that half of those choosing negotiations would do so only if Israel agreed first to a settlement freeze and the 1967 borders.
The PA is unlikely to dissolve itself and Israel is unlikely to acquiesce. So a look at the phantasmagorical system of Palestinian budget building and American complicity is in order.
Last summer, the U.S. Congress withheld nearly $147 million of the planned $513 million in aid due to the Palestinian Authority's unilateral UN statehood bid. (Another $113 million in U.S. funds for the PA security forces and $232 million for the UN Relief and Works Agency were unaffected.) Under pressure from the State Department which enlisted the Israeli government's help Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Ileana Ros-Lehtinen announced that $88.5 million will be released. She retained her hold on the other $58.6 million:
I am disappointed that the administration would employ hardball tactics against Congress and threaten to send, over congressional objections, U.S. taxpayer dollars to the Palestinian Authority.
How important is U.S. aid? It amounts to about 15% of the total announced Palestinian budget and nearly 50% of all expected aid. But consider the overall state of Palestinian finances: the 2012 PA budget produced by PM Salam Fayyad, the West's "go-to man" for economic decision making called for $3.5 billion in spending, $1.1 billion in aid, and showed a deficit of between $750 million and $1.1 billion (the latter figure is now the accepted one). That means the Palestinian economy is expected to generate only about $1.3 billion[1],and the PA is planning to spend three times what it produces. In real money terms then, with $1.3B in generated income and $1.1B in aid ($2.4B to spend), U.S. aid ($513 million) is almost 20% of actual spending.
Why in Gods name do we give the Palestinians any money? that shit goes right in the pocket of Hamas.