Doc's Talk: PA: US funding freeze is "blackmail," "unjustified" and "collective punishment"

Wednesday, October 05, 2011

PA: US funding freeze is "blackmail," "unjustified" and "collective punishment"

Fatah: US aid is a Palestinian "right,"
since the US is "morally responsible" for Israel's creation
http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=5728

by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

Throughout 2011, Palestinian Authority leaders have mocked and minimized the significance of US aid, and even dared the US to cut off its funding of the PA.
Now that the US has announced a freeze of $200 million dollars, PA leaders are criticizing the US, claiming the freeze is "blackmail." Fatah added that the US and other countries owe the Palestinians financial aid on moral grounds, calling US aid to the PA an "obligation" and a "political and moral right" because the US "aided in the establishment of the State of Israel." Earlier this year, both PM Salam Fayyad and Chairman Mahmoud Abbas criticized the US for linking its financial support to the PA's political cooperation. Fayyad called US requests "extortion" and Mahmoud Abbas said: "The US is assisting us in the amount of $460 million annually. This does not mean that they dictate to us whatever they want." (See quotes and sources below.)

This week, the official PA daily reported:
"Fatah: We are opposed to blackmail by the American Congress; the aid is a political and moral right... The Fatah movement viewed the decision by Congress to withhold the transfer of aid funds to the PA as political blackmail and bias in favor of the Israeli occupation state."

Fatah spokesman Faiz Abu Aytah:
"There is a moral and human obligation which rests with some of the donor countries, including the American administration, since they are morally responsible for the human tragedy which has befallen the Palestinian people since the Nakba (i.e., "the Catastrophe," term used by Palestinians for the establishment of Israel) in 1948."
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Oct. 3, 2011]

Saeb Erekat, PA chief negotiator:
"We appreciate US aid, but to be blackmailed and bargained with over our right to self-determination, on Jerusalem, and on our Arab and Islamic identity is unacceptable."
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Oct. 3, 2011]

Ghassan Khatib, PA spokesperson, Director of PA Government Media Center, and former Minister of Planning and Minister of Labor:
"This [the US funding freeze] is not constructive at all. Such moves are unjustified. These are mainly humanitarian and development projects - it is another kind of collective punishment which is going to harm the needs of the public without making any positive contribution."
[The Independent (website), Oct. 1, 2011]

The Palestinian Authority's strong criticism of the US is not new. Throughout 2011, long before the current disagreement, PA leaders and their official media have been mocking US aid:

When PM Salam Fayyad minimized US aid to the PA, calling US financial support "extortion," he added:
"We are not interested in the first place in receiving assistance from any source that threatens to halt its aid for political reasons."
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Feb. 21, 2011]

A day later, Fayyad mocked US aid in a speech broadcast on PA TV:
"We have never referred to this [US] aid as a replacement for our legitimate aspiration to achieve all our national rights. Absolutely [not]. Because our national rights are not for sale or trade for a handful of [American] dollars."
[PA TV (Fatah), Feb. 22, 2011]

Recently, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has repeatedly stressed his refusal to compromise with the US regarding the Palestinian statehood request at the UN, even at the cost of losing financial aid from the US:
"Pressure is indeed being exerted so that we won't go [to the UN]... but ultimately there is a supreme Palestinian interest according to which we want to act. ... We have indeed been told that Congress will halt the aid, whether we go to the UN Security Council or to the UN General Assembly."
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Aug. 29, 2011]

Abbas has also expressed pride in his personal refusal to give in to US political requests by citing two examples:
"The US is assisting us in the amount of $460 million annually. This does not mean that they dictate to us whatever they want. I recall that they [the US] said, 'Don't go to the Arab Summit in Damascus,' but we went. They demanded that we should not sign the Egyptian reconciliation document [between Fatah and Hamas], but we sent Azzam Al-Ahmed to sign it."
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Jan. 24, 2011]

Following their leaders' example, Palestinians recently demonstrated against receiving support from USAID. Significantly, the official PA daily gave prominence to the demonstration and published a large picture:

An article in the official PA daily reported on the protest:
"...dozens of Palestinian youth from the Independent Youth Activity group gathered... for a sit-down strike opposite the El-Bireh municipality, protesting what they refer to as 'conditional external funding', which is conditional first and foremost on abandoning so-called 'terror'... They called upon Palestinian youth to internalize the extent of the plot which is being woven by the American institutions against the Palestinian people and the Palestinian cause... The Youth Activity [group] said that this funding is leading to perpetuation of backwardness, increased dependence, the consolidation of [American] hegemony and a weakening of the struggle, since it causes and seeks distortion of consciousness and perceptions, by creating a limbo which they [America] claim represents development, while in fact it is nothing but a bridge to normalization with the enemy (i.e., Israel)."
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Sept. 11, 2011]

In February, 28 Palestinian municipalities decided to boycott the US and reject US financial assistance. Hatem Abd Al-Qader, who holds Fatah's Jerusalem portfolio, explained that they would not be "humiliated" by receiving what he dismissed as "a bit of aid":
"Hatem Abd Al-Qader, who holds Fatah's Jerusalem portfolio, announced a boycott of the American consulate, its diplomats, and the American institutions in Jerusalem... He added that this boycott 'will continue until the American administration changes its stance concerning the Palestinian cause, and especially concerning the issue of settlements, and apologizes to the Palestinian people and its president, Mahmoud Abbas.' Abd Al-Qader said that the American administration 'cannot extort the Palestinian people and humiliate it with a bit of aid.'"
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Feb. 24, 2011]

American money used for anti-American propaganda
The Palestinian Authority has succeeded in creating such broad anti-American sentiment that a Palestinian National Theater director bragged on PA TV that he inserted an anti-American message in his play, which was funded by American money. "I inserted a political statement against America with American money," he said.
[PA TV (Fatah), July 6 and Sept. 15, 2011]

The Palestinian National Theater used a grant from the U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem to stage the American play, Passages of Martin Luther King, written by Stanford scholar Clayborne Carson.

The US Consulate had good intentions with its support of the play, as it wrote in its announcement about the play: "The Passages of Martin Luther King project is one of many programs sponsored by the U.S. Consulate General throughout the year. These programs engage Palestinians in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip, and promote dialogue and mutual understanding between Palestinians and Americans." However, the theater director said that when the American Consul saw what the Palestinian theater had done with US money, "his face turned red."

The following is the interview with Palestinian National Theater artistic director, Kamal Al-Basha:

Kamal Al-Basha: I directed a play about Martin Luther King - Passages of Martin Luther King.
TV host: Funded by USAID?
Kamal Al-Basha: No, not by USAID, by the American Consulate, directly from the American government... I put in scenes that talk about the American-Palestinian relationship. I had one scene - when the American Consul watched the play his face turned red. This scene shows [Palestinian] refusal to have the American flag, refusal to have the American flag on stage because the Americans used their veto against the Palestinian people. I inserted a political statement against America with American money.
[PA TV (Fatah), July 6 and Sept. 15, 2011]

US funding
It should be noted that not only is the US under the Obama administration a major financial supporter of the PA, but since its establishment in 1993, the PA has received more financial aid from the United States than from any other country. Most of the Palestinian infrastructure has benefited from US aid, including schools, hospitals, universities, water systems, road development, sports and more. The "bit of aid" that the PA is rejecting totaled more than half a billion dollars in 2010 alone [Hillary Clinton speech, Nov. 10, 2010, US State Department website].

The following is the article in the official PA daily reporting on the Fatah spokesman's response to the US funding freeze:

Headline: "Fatah: We are opposed to blackmail by the American Congress; the aid is a political and moral right"
"The Fatah movement viewed the decision by Congress to withhold the transfer of aid funds to the PA as political blackmail and bias in favor of the Israeli occupation state. The movement's spokesman, Faiz Abu Aytah, said yesterday that the funds transferred by the donor countries in order to help the Palestinian people, including the money given by the US, are a political right, since it [the US] is the patron for the agreements signed between the PLO and the Israeli government, in order to allow the PA to build its state institutions. He added, 'There is a moral and human obligation which rests with some of the donor countries, including the American administration, since they are morally responsible for the human tragedy which has befallen the Palestinian people since the Nakba (i.e., "the Catastrophe," the term used by Palestinians for the establishment of Israel) in 1948.' He stated that most of these countries aided in the establishment of the State of Israel, at the expense of the state of Palestinian people."
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Oct. 3, 2011]

The following is the article in the official PA daily reporting on Fayyad's response to the US veto of a UN resolution on the issue of Israeli building in Jerusalem and the West Bank:

"Yesterday Prime Minister Salam Fayyad attacked the US in an unprecedented manner. He emphasized his opposition to American 'extortion,' which is expressed in the threat to halt aid to the PA if it insists on appealing to the Security Council to denounce Israeli settlement. Fayyad said: 'We did not agree, and will not agree, to extortion, and our people will never agree to that. We are not interested in the first place in receiving assistance from any source that threatens to halt its aid for political reasons.' In an announcement to the press during his inauguration of a school in the village of Al-Jalameh in the Jenin district, he added: 'I emphasize that we do not view the assistance offered to us as an alternative to liberty for our people. Justice is on our side, and our rights are not for sale, barter, or trade for a handful of dollars.'"
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Feb. 21, 2011]

US statement on the freeze
This week, the US House Foreign Affairs Committee (and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee) announced it was freezing the administration's request for $200 million in aid to the PA "until the Palestinian statehood issue is sorted out."

Chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen:
"There must be consequences for Palestinian and UN actions that undermine any hope for true and lasting peace."
[http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/press_display.asp?id=1989]

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The IDF’s Minorities in Numbers and Pictures

In honor of IDF Diversity Week, we present diversity through numbers and pictures. Each year, more and more Muslims, Christians, Druze, Bedouin and immigrants from around the world take on the responsibility of defending Israel.

MUSLIMS:

Muslim Arab Israelis are not required to draft in the IDF, but there are many who volunteer. In 2013, there were over 200 Muslims serving in the IDF and over 300 in the reserves.

Bedouins:

Bedouins are nomadic Muslims who were in Israel when modern borders were set in place and are now considered Israeli citizens. They are not required to draft but a growing number choose to enlist. In 2012, there were over 1,400 Bedouin Muslim soldiers doing regular IDF service and almost 1,500 in the reserves.

Read more:http://www.idfblog.com/2014/02/27/truth-idf-numbers-pictures/#more-34027

Are you aware that in 2013, Middle class taxes go up-significantly?

In January of next year, the federal income tax rate for middle-class taxpayers is scheduled to rise from 25 percent to 28 percent, and the payroll tax is scheduled to rise from 13.3 percent to 15.3 percent… This drives the marginal tax rate based on the aforementioned three taxes to 48.12 percent. Add in state and local property, corporate, excise, and other state and local taxes, and the percentage of each additional dollar that is taxed hovers around 50 percent… When half of each additional dollar earned is taxed away, taxpayers experience a disincentive to start businesses or expand existing ones. This leads to fewer jobs being created.

Why is HAMAS Inside Tampa Schools?

Clare Lopez

Kelly Miliziano, who teaches history classes at Steinbrenner High School in the Tampa, Florida area apparently thinks it’s perfectly OK to invite a senior official of a HAMAS-affiliated organization into her classroom to discuss Islam with her students. According to local media reports, not only has this been going on for years, but in spite of the civil and criminal proceedings that could result from such reckless negligence, the Hillsborough County school superintendent, Mary Ellen Elia, and the chairman of the school board, Candy Olson, also expressed approval for students under their responsibility to be exposed repeatedly to guest speaker, Hassan Shibly, who is the Executive Director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in the Tampa area.
More...

Did You Know... Ignoring the Call to Islam will Bring Jihad

‘Conquest through Da’wa [proselytizing] that is what we hope for. We will conquer Europe, we will conquer America! Not through sword but through Da’wa.’
-- Yousef al-Qaradawi , Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader The Arabic word ‘Da’wa’ means the “call to Islam.” But do not think that Da’wa is the same thing as an invitation to an optional holiday event. The classical Islamic doctrine of jihad mandates that enemies must be given the opportunity to convert to Islam or pay the jizya tax before it is permissible to attack them.
Clare M. Lopez

Who is being discriminated-facts tell the truth

Religious bias

Hate crimes motivated by religious bias accounted for 1,409 offenses reported by law enforcement. A breakdown of the bias motivation of religious-bias offenses showed:

65.4 percent were anti-Jewish.
13.2 percent were anti-Islamic.
9.5 percent were anti-other religion, i.e., those not specified.
4.3 percent were anti-Catholic.
3.8 percent were anti-multiple religions, group.
3.3 percent were anti-Protestant.
0.5 percent were anti-Atheism/Agnosticism/etc.

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/hate-crime/2010/narratives/hate-crime-2010-incidents-and-offenses.

On March 31, 1977, the Dutch newspaper Trouw published an interview

with PLO executive committee member Zahir Muhsein. Here's what he said:

"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct "Palestinian people" to oppose Zionism.

For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan."

In March 1977, Zahir Muhsein, a PLO executive, said:

"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct Palestinian people to oppose Zionism."

"For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan."

The Arab Apartheid

Ben-Dror Yemini
In 1948, the Arab countries refused to accept the UN partition proposal and they launched a war of annihilation against the State of Israel which had barely been established. All precedents in this matter showed that the party that starts the war - and with a declaration of annihilation, yet - pays a price for it. Between 550,000 and 710,000 Arabs fled because of the war and a larger number of 850,000 Jews were expelled or fled from Arab countries (the "Jewish nakba").
Population exchanges and expulsions were the norm at that time, occurring in dozens of other conflict points and affecting about 52 million people. In all the population exchange precedents that occurred during or at the end of an armed conflict, there was no return of refugees to the previous region, which had turned into a new national state.
Only the Arab states acted completely differently from the rest of the world. Instead of assimilating the refugees, they crushed them despite the fact that they were their coreligionists and members of the Arab nation - instituting a regime of apartheid. So the "nakba" was not caused by the actual dispossession, which had also been experienced by tens of millions of others. The "nakba" is the story of the apartheid, oppression, abuse and denial of rights suffered by the Arab refugees at the hands of the Arab countries. (Maariv)

International Law and Military Operations in Practice - Col. Richard Kemp

"Islamist fighting groups study the international laws of armed conflict carefully and they understand it well. They know that a British or Israeli commander and his men are bound by international law and the rules of engagement that flow from it. They then do their utmost to exploit what they view as one of their enemy's main weaknesses. Their very modus operandi is built on the correct assumption that Western armies will normally abide by the rules, while these insurgents employ a deliberate policy of operating consistently outside international law. "

Lost Historical Moments

What Rabin’s last Knesset speech really said:repudiation of a Palestinian state

Rabin ruled out a fully sovereign Palestinian state :

“We view the permanent solution in the framework of State of Israel which will include most of the area of the Land of Israel as it was under the rule of the British Mandate, and alongside it a Palestinian entity which will be a home to most of the Palestinian residents living in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. We would like this to be an entity which is less than a state, and which will independently run the lives of the Palestinians under its authority.”

Rabin ruled out a total withdrawal from Judea and Samaria and thus a return to the pre-June 1967 borders :

“The borders of the State of Israel, during the permanent solution, will be beyond the lines which existed before the Six Day War. We will not return to the 4 June 1967 lines.”

Rabin ruled out withdrawing form the Jordan Valley:

“The security border of the State of Israel will be located in the Jordan Valley, in the broadest meaning of that term.”

Rabin ruled out uprooting settlement blocs, like the Gush Katif bloc in Gaza (which was subsequently uprooted by former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon):

“The establishment of blocs of settlements in Judea and Samaria, like the one in Gush Katif.

AND

Rabin ruled out removing any settlement before coming to a full peace agreement with the Palestinians:

“I want to remind you: we committed ourselves, that is, we came to an agreement, and committed ourselves before the Knesset, not to uproot a single settlement in the framework of the interim agreement, and not to hinder building for natural growth.”

Rabin insisted on Israel retaining full security control of the borders with Egypt and Jordan, contrary to Israel’s relinquishment of the Philadelphia Corridor on the border with Egypt:

“The responsibility for external security along the borders with Egypt and Jordan, as well as control over the airspace above all of the territories and Gaza Strip maritime zone, remains in our hands.”

Correcting Oslo Myths-Part 2

3) Kuttab laments that the post-1993 Oslo process resulted in a Palestinian Authority "whose ministers and legislators are not guaranteed passage between Gaza and the West Bank ...."

Before free passage or other perquisites, PA leaders were obligated, among other things, to eliminate the terrorist infrastructure in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, end anti-Israeli, antisemitic incitement in schools, mosques, and communications media, and resolve all outstanding issues through peaceful negotiations. They met none of these commitments, sometimes bolstering terrorism and greatly increasing incitement.

4) Kuttab complains that under Oslo the PA got "lightly armed police ---- but no real sovereignty over the land or contiguity between our communities in Gaza and the West Bank."

Oslo agreements repeatedly were revised, regardless of Palestinian non-compliance, until the authorized number of police grew from 8,000 to 40,000. Though they were to be the only armed forces in the territories, Israeli estimates early in the second intifada put the number of gunmen - police, "security services," terrorists, and armed gangs - at 85,000. Their armament reportedly included not only heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, but also anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles.

Sovereignty was to be negotiated in the envisioned 1998 "final status" talks - after a five-year period of confidence-building. Palestinian leadership chronically undermined the process. Palestinian terrorism made the 1993 - 1998 Oslo period more deadly for Israelis than the 15 years preceding it.

The United States doesn't have contiguity between the lower 48 states and Alaska and Hawaii; territorial contiguity between the West Bank and Gaza Strip - that is, through the 20 miles of Israeli territory between them - was never promised and would destroy Israeli contiguity.

5) "Palestinians have been made to endure hundreds of checkpoints in the West Bank, an eight-foot wall deep in our territories, and tight Israeli control over borders."

The security barrier is not "deep in Palestinian territories," but rather encompasses less than 8 percent of Judea and Samaria, and is mostly a fence, rarely a wall; the land in question is not "our [Palestinian] territories" but disputed territory to which, according to the authors of U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, Jews as well as Arabs have claims; and there are no international borders, only the 1949 armistice lines with Jordan. Under 242, borders remain to be negotiated. As for checkpoints - like the security barrier and "tight Israeli control" - Palestinian Arabs precipitated these measures themselves. No terrorism and there would be no fence or tight Israeli control and few checkpoints - like before the first intifada.

Correcting Some Oslo Myths

1) In Oslo "Israeli, Palestinian and other world leaders promised that ... Palestinian sovereignty would be solidified."

No, they didn't. The 1993 Declaration of Principles and subsequent Oslo agreements outlined a process by which final status negotiations about the West Bank and Gaza Strip would be reached. The process required an end to anti-Israel terrorism and incitement and a commitment to peaceful negotiations. The PA, Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and other terrorist groups, sabotaged the process from the start.

2) "The reality is that, in defiance of U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, which states that it is inadmissible to occupy land by force, Palestinian territories are still under foreign military occupation."
Wrong again. Resolution 242 (1967) does note "the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war." It also affirms the right of every state in the area "to live in peace with secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force." There were no "Palestinian territories." Jordan occupied the West Bank, Egypt controlled Gaza. Israel did not have "secure and recognized boundaries," so retention of some of those territories was possible under 242. Israel is not a "foreign" military occupier in the West Bank but, pending final negotiations, the lawful military administrator as a result of a successful war of self-defense.

Doc's Talk