Toby Willig
Jerusalem
Who Stole $3 Billion From The Palestinian Cookie Jar?
According to a recent report of the European Court of Auditors, a Luxembourg-based watchdog, more than $3 billion (or 2 billion Euros) of European aid given to the Palestinian authority between 2008 and 2012 “may have been misspent, squandered or lost to corruption.”
The auditor report further stated there were “significant shortcomings” in the management of funds sent to Gaza and the West Bank.
Now, where could the EU’s $3 billion have gone? Or the many billions of dollars in aid money from the U.S. that has also gone missing?
But it gets richer (or poorer in this case). Just last week, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas blamed the “Israeli occupation” for his not having enough money to pay the 150,000 Palestinian “employees” of the West Bank and Gaza. The Palestinian 2013 budget was expected to reach $1.4 billion.
If that wasn’t enough, the IDF just discovered a tunnel from the Gaza Strip to Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha, which is located in pre-June1967 Israel. The Gaza-Hashlosha tunnel was measured at 1.7 kilometers, or about a mile, and protruded 300 meters into Israel. The exit of the Palestinian tunnel was located right next to the kibbutz’s kindergarten. The tunnel was equipped with electricity, lighting, telephones, tracks to evacuate dirt, and places to store large caches of explosives for maximum effect. In short, it was a “full service” tunnel.
It’s clear that Palestinian officials are not paying teachers to teach physics or computers to Palestinian children so they can compete in the modern world. Instead, Abbas and Hamas are paying terrorist murderers who are sitting in Israeli jails and terror-tunnel builders who intend to kidnap Israeli schoolchildren.
Mark Langfan
Palm Beach, FL
Editor’s note: The writer is chairman of Americans for a Safe Israel.