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| By Israel Insider staff December 17, 2007 |
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International donors pledged $1.8 billion more than was expected for the Palestinian Authority Monday, far exceeding even the Palestinians' wildest expectations, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said. "The real winner today is the Palestinian state," he told a news conference after the gathering of nearly 90 countries and international organizations in Paris. "We wanted $5.6B, we have $7.4B. Not bad."
Not bad at all for a kleptocracy that has a snowball's chance in Gaza of surviving its first confrontation with the Islamic Hamas movement, or else will give up the good cop-bad cop act and divvy up the haul.
Earlier in the day, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the conference Monday was the Palestinian government's "last hope" to avoid bankruptcy. She urged fast and generous international aid. She didn't dwell on the Palestinians past failure or inability to take even the smallest steps to fulfill their security undertakings to Israel under the US-backed "Road Map."
"The Palestinian Authority is experiencing a serious budgetary crisis," Rice lamented, adding that the US government had pledged $555 million for 2008. "This conference is literally the government's last hope to avoid bankruptcy." She did not mention the billions of dollars that had been previously squandered in corruption and bureaucratic waste, not to mention rampant terrorism and the purchase and furnishing of lavish homes for senior Palestinian officials.
Abbas earlier used the high-profile platform of the conference to call on Israel to freeze Jewish settlements "without excuses." He declared: "I'll be eager to implement all our commitments under the road map, and I expect the Israeli side to do the same, comprehensively, and without excuses, by us or by them," Abbas said, trying to suppress a snicker.
"I expect them to stop all settlement activities, without exceptions," Abbas demanded, his voice rising to a squeak. He also called on Israel to remove dozens of unauthorized settlement outposts established since 2001, to remove military checkpoints and to stop building its security barrier in the West Bank.
Abbas said the PA government is determined to carry out reforms, "effectively and with enthusiasm." That is, security forces are being trained to flee from their assignments enthusiastically, more quickly than ever before, except those who enthusiastically use their weapons to murder Jews, as happened with the Fatah policeman who killed an Israeli father of two, Ido Zoldan, the evening before the Annapolis conference. Last summer, PA security forces attempted to assassinate PM Olmert.
As the Jerusalem Post's Khaled Abu Toameh reported last Friday, PA commanders acknowledge that despite hundreds of millions of dollars received from the US and the Europeans since the Hamas electoral victory two years ago, and notwithstanding training and arms obtained from the US, the Europeans and the Russians, the PA's security forces have yet to take the first step towards reforming themselves or combating Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah's own Aksa Martyrs Brigades.
Despite US prodding and Israel's willingness to allow these forces to deploy in the Palestinian cities and villages of Judea and Samaria, PA forces have taken no action against terror cells anywhere. As one Palestinian official summed up their operations, "We arrested citizens who stole olive oil three years ago or fired into the air during weddings two years ago."
The government will try to restore order in the often lawless Palestinian areas, where vigilante gunmen have ruled in recent years, he said. It will try, he suggested, with promises of free clock-radios to the first member of the security forces that will try to stop a terrorist attack on Israelis. The PA has according previous attackers of Israelis with "protective security" to ensure that Israel does not capture them.
"Providing security is one of our priorities," he said with a wink, adding that he planned to restructure the ill-trained and ill-equipped Palestinian security services, which were further weakened during years of fighting with Israel. Funds would need to be used for weapons and ammunition, to replenish the depleted supply.
West Bank chieftain Abbas also had harsh words for his political rival, Hamas, which seized control of Gaza from Fatah in June. "I shall not accept dialogue (with Hamas)," Abbas said, referring to Hamas's repeated calls to resume talks on a national unity government. The "good cop" said Gaza is already "close to catastrophe," and would head into disaster without continued international aid. Abbas is widely expected to kiss and make up with Hamas after the European and American money starts rolling in.
Middle East envoy Tony Blair called it not just a donors' conference but also a "state-building conference." Lego blocks were assembled for the amusement of the participants. The meeting's host, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, called it a turning point in Mideast peace efforts after Israeli-Palestinian negotiations resumed last week ending a seven-year stall. The meeting however, was marked by recrimination and threats by the Palestinians to break off the talk, a fact unmentioned by Sarkozy and other speakers.
"What we must do now is work together before the end of 2008 for the creation of an independent, democratic, viable Palestinian state," Sarkozy said in a speech to representatives from nearly 90 donor countries and international organizations, with Led Zeppelin's anthem "Dream On" playing in the background.
The European Union on Monday launched the day of pledges of aid by promising $650m. in 2008, EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner told The Associated Press, with the expectation that the same level would continue in subsequent years.
In 2007, the EU initially pledged $245B but ended up contributing $798m. for that year because of deepening poverty in the Palestinian territories.
In all, the EU and its member states gave about $1.45B to the Palestinians in 2007. The figure includes not just aid to the Palestinian government, but also contributions to international agencies that assist the Palestinians. Today Britain, France and Germany announced a combined pledge of $1.08B.
Ferrero-Waldner and Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayad urged Arab states to do more. Since 2002, Arab League members have been promising the Palestinians $55M a month, put have not always -- in other words, rarely have -- paid their pledges, preferring instead to perpetuate Palestinian suffering as a weapon against Israel.
Fayad is trying to assure donor countries - which threw away more than $10B to the Palestinians over the past decade -- that they are not expected to prop up a corrupt and ineffectual PA government indefinitely. He has presented a three-year reform plan, with promises to cut government spending by trimming a bloated public payroll and reducing hundreds of millions of dollars in utility bills. But first he wants cash up front, in small unmarked bills, to address "his huge budget deficit." Only later would funds be allocated to development projects.
Economists say it's not enough for the donors to pledge aid and for the Palestinians to carry out reforms. The Palestinian economy will only recover, according to the World Bank, if Israel reduces physical and administrative limits on movement in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and invites suicide bombers and Kalashnikov-toting gunmen to roam its malls and sip cafe hafuch in its coffee houses. |
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