PA finance minister tells donors there will be war without more money

Blackmail, Palestinian Arab-style:

The Palestinian Authority finance minister warned on Sunday that if the government's fragile financial situation persists, the peace process between Israel and Palestinians is at risk.

Nabil Kassis was addressing a meeting of donors to the PA, the Ad-Hoc Liaison Committee, in New York.

The Palestinian Authority says that shortfalls in foreign aid pledges are compounding its financial crisis. The World Bank and International Monetary Fund both urged immediate donor action in their reports to the meeting, as well as the lifting of Israeli restrictions which harm economic growth.

Kassis told the meeting that financial problems would undermine the sustainability of a Palestinian government, social cohesion and a sense of security in Palestine. Recent weeks saw mass strikes and rallies across the West Bank protesting the rising cost of living, that increasingly focused on criticism of the government.

"No doubt, if the status quo is allowed to persist, it will have dire consequences to the international enterprise of peace making in the Middle East," Kassis said.

In other words, Palestinian Arabs are naturally violent, and the only way to keep them artificially peaceful is to shovel more money towards the PA.

Left unsaid is that the PA budget includes tens of millions of dollars that are earmarked for terrorists in Israeli jails as a reward for their attempts to kill Jews, not to mention the lifetime annuities to families of suicide bombers.

Also left unsaid is that about half of the PA budget goes to Hamas-controlled Gaza, most of which pays "employees" not to work.

Another thing left unsaid is that Israel continues to bend over backwards to provide economic help to the PA while their Arab brethren are increasingly withholding funds.

But, no, you know who the PA will blame.

And the lies continue:

He stressed that Israel's stranglehold on the 60 percent of the West Bank designated 'Area C' in the Oslo Accords blocks any possibility to implement economic development.

Then why was the PA's economy booming in the years before the second intifada, when they didn't have access to those lands either?

And the lies continue:

"The greater part of Palestinian lands is being gradually emptied of its Palestinian inhabitants in order to provide room for more colonization by Israel," he said.

Is Area C really being emptied of its Palestinian Arab inhabitants?

In 2002, the Arab population of Area C was reported to be 40,000. This year it was reported to be 56,000.

But look at the EU report in that last link to see how easy it is to lie about statistics when you want to pillory Israel:

The EU heads of mission report - seen by EUobserver - notes that between 200,000 and 320,000 Palestinians used to live in the Jordan Valley, most of which is in Area C, in 1967, but demolition of Palestinian homes and prevention of new buildings has seen the number drop to 56,000.

The higher number is not the population of the Jordan Valley under "occupation"! The vast majority of inhabitants of the area fled during and mostly after the 1967 war because they did not want to live under Jewish rule. They fled quite voluntarily. Jordan tried to encourage them to return but most refused. Israel did not expel anyone from their homes.

So instead of reporting that the Arab population of Area C has increased an astounding 40% in the last decade, the EU report (and the PA) is taking irrelevant population numbers from before Israel took over an area in a conflict that Jordan started.

This is the type of mendacity that is seen every day in the fantasyland of the PLO and those willing to swallow the anti-Israel line.