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UNRWa, Hamas, Yasser arafat, Salam Fayyad

The Mysterious Palestine Investment Fund

By Joseph Klein
Wednesday, May 24, 2006

as I reported two weeks ago in an article entitled "UNRWa Cries Wolf", the pleading by the United Nations and other Palestinian terrorist appeasers for resumption of aid to the Hamas regime rings hollow. To restore foreign aid from the West, all that Hamas has to do is re-affirm the two state policy approved by its predecessor, forswear terrorism and give President abbas complete authority to continue negotiations with the Israelis. Instead, Hamas is holding the Palestinian people hostage to its fanatical vow to destroy Israel. Moreover, there is rampant waste within the Palestinian authority which has yet to be corrected. according to a report issued last November by the World Bank, "The Pa [Palestinian authority] has created a serious fiscal crisis for itself, with salary expenditure essentially out of control." and, as I noted in my prior article, the United Nations Relief and Works agency has plenty of donor contributions at its own disposal to alleviate the immediate crisis if it would only get its own house in order and stop berating the West for refusing to subsidize a terrorist regime.

In addition to all this, the Palestinian authority is sitting on more than a billion dollars in an investment fund which it has mysteriously failed to tap in dealing with its self-induced financial crisis. This piggy bank originated from monies that Yasser arafat had reportedly diverted to his own personal investment portfolio. Through a labyrinth of secret accounts, arafat had apparently pilfered tax collection revenues and foreign aid intended to be used by the Palestinian authority for the benefit of the Palestinian people. He built up a rich personal portfolio of investments around the world. In addition, arafat's wife, Suha arafat, has been investigated for money laundering and diversion of funds into her personal bank accounts. www.worldpress.org/Europe/1976.cfm

at least part of arafat's secret portfolio was eventually recovered and put under the control of the Palestine Investment Fund, administered by a reform-minded finance minister, Salam Fayyad, who was first appointed by arafat to placate the West and deflect attention from his own corrupt dealings. Fayyad remained in his post through the end of last year. In the recent Legislative assembly election, he ran on an anti-corruption platform as the leader of the Third Way Party. The Third Way Party also opposed instituting Islamic law and opposed violence against Israeli civilians.

after his party's defeat, Fayyad refused to join the Hamas government. Omar abdel-Razeq, a hardliner, is the current Hamas finance minister. In response to questions about how he will deal with the financial crisis besetting the Hamas-run government, Omar abdel-Razeq said last March that "We have money coming in from other sources, from the arab sources. We have also some funds that we have to tap and look into. We have also our Palestinian Investment Fund." But nothing much has actually been done.

The big question now is who really controls the billion dollars plus Palestine Investment Fund that Fayyad had been trying to run for the benefit of the Palestinian people. Why is the Palestinian regime now crying poverty when it is sitting on top of this kitty and when there may well be other monies interspersed in various secret bank accounts that are yet to be recovered? Other than being tapped very recently to pay off certain debts, the Palestine Investment Fund is in limbo. It is the subject of a power struggle between President abbas and Hamas. While they fight, the Palestinian people are needlessly suffering. and the United Nations Relief and Works agency is strangely silent about this fund that can help the Palestinians help themselves, while it continues to play the familiar Palestinian ‘victimhood' refrain.

Perhaps the solution to the Palestinians' plight is the formation of a unity government under the leadership of Salam Fayyad and his Third Way Party. The people voted to end the corruption of the prior regime. Fayyad is certainly the one leader who has the credibility to do it and reach out to the West to resume aid. Hamas can be represented in this government, but not dominate it. President abbas can be given a clear mandate to negotiate a peaceful resolution with Israel. It is time that the third way finally be given a chance - an independent Palestinian state living in peaceful co-existence with Israel and operating with an honest government looking out for the welfare of its people. It is within reach if the United Nations and other enablers of the Palestinian victim mentality simply get out of the way and stop making excuses for the present terrorist regime.


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