Money, Funds.
Reader comment on item: The Palestinian-Israeli War: Where It Came From, and How to End It

Submitted by Henri Misrahi (Spain), Mar 26, 2006 at 06:32

March 26th. 2006

Sir,

I have read with great interest your speech called: The Palestinian-Israeli War: Where It Came From, and How to End It and your answers to the questions you received.

By all means, your reasoning is perfect, and I agree with it completely: a bully in a school only stops bullying once a stronger person subdues him, and everyday life is the same thing.

I have questions that relate to the title of my message: Palestinians are convinced that they can continue to live in a lie: not working, not improving their society, etc. etc. because they do not need to earn the money they need to live. They receive it for free, and even more, in some cases, they receive it to continue being in war.

The main donor is the E.U. – followed by the United States and finally by the Arab World. The first two have clearly said they will not continue to provide funds if Israel is not recognised and the state of war is not cancelled, but the Arab world, very happy to have substitutes fight Israel, are still pumping money into Palestine, free of any commitment towards peace.

My reasoning is that if this source of money was blocked, you would get the statement of end of war that you suggest. And my questions are:

1) The funds reaching the Palestinian authority and others reaches them through the International Banking system: Both the Uniteds States and the E.U. lmpw how to follow these funds and know from where they arrive. Why are they not blocked to close these sources?
2) Both the United States and the E.U. have enormous political clout in the Middle East, the Persian Gulf and other Muslim countries. Why do they not use this clout to have the ‘donors' stop giving.

Thank you.

Regards,

HENRI MISRAHI
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Daniel Pipes replies:

I agree, but see the money as only one facet of the massive international support for the Palestinians, which has the effect of buoying them and keeping their war effort alive.