Palestinians Begging for Billions, Adoring Adolf
Charles Johnson
Wed Dec 5, 2007 at 8:22 am PST • Views: 661
The terrorist PLO government of Mahmoud Abbas is asking the international community for almost $6 billion in handouts, after blowing untold billions over the past decades on terrorism and corruption.
But they’ve changed. This time will be different.
RAMALLAH, West Bank - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will ask the international community this week to nearly double aid through 2010, for a total of $5.8 billion.
Abbas says he needs help with a huge deficit run up in years of strife, but also is promising to curb spending and spark economic growth. The Abbas government’s 2008-2010 development plan, obtained by The Associated Press, will be given to officials from donor countries in Paris on Friday, ahead of a high-level donor meeting there on Dec. 17. Seventy percent of the aid is to go for budget support, including $120 million a month to pay wages for the bloated public sector, and 30 percent is to be spent on development projects.Palestinian Planning Minister Samir Abdullah said the government hopes to decrease its deficit gradually, stimulate the economy, including private sector investment, and to become less and less dependent on aid. “Our ultimate goal is to end economic stagnation,” he said, holding out hope for a balanced budget within six years, perhaps even sooner if Israel moves quickly to lift crippling restrictions on trade and travel.
And even as they hold out their hands for money, official Palestinian radio is running a quiz show in which the hero is Adolf Hitler.
Frank says: