The UN couldn't be more corrupt if it tried.

“Someone reading this paper with no background would assume that the Israeli government was a benign actor. No mention is made of the occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.”

You mean that "occupation" that ended a long time ago?

UNRWA establishment is steaming over the report ...

... because it threatens to break its rice bowl.

/first and foremost, bureaucrats are self-centered

Doesn't this qualify as a Flying Pig moment?

US out of UN Now!

Charles, David Klinghoffer is at it again...The Strange Case of Little Green Footballs III..."Johnson never makes the connection between the Darwinism he defends and the sapping of Western confidence that he laments." Talk about confused! One day he says embracing 'Darwinism' led to the Holocaust and the next day he says its responsible for 'sapping western confidence'. Try wrapping your head around that! [Link: www.evolutionnews.org...]

[insert random UN corruption report]

[insert random snide remark]

/fin

Get Arnold Ziffle out of the hanger!

And Jpost is reporting on the cut-off of Gaza relief due to Hamas stealing all of the supplies

UNRWA: Refuge Of Rejectionism
Barry Rubin, Asaf Romirowsky, and Jonathan Spyer

On the surface, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) seems a humanitarian group helping Palestinian refugees. In reality, it actually helps destroy the chance of Arab-Israeli peace, promotes terrorism, and holds Palestainians back from rebuilding their lives.

Unique in history, UNRWA's job is to keep Palestinian refugees in suspended animation--and at low living standards--until they achieve the goal set for them by the PLO and Hamas: Israel's extinction. In the meantime, their suffering and anger is maintained as a weapon to encourage them toward violence and intransigence.

UNRWA schools become hotbeds of anti-Western, anti-American, and anti-Semitic indoctrination, recruiting offices for terrorist groups. UNRWA's services are dominated by radicals who staff and subsidize radical groups while potentially intimidating anyone from voicing a different line. UNWRA facilities are used to store and transport weapons, actually serving as military bases.

[Link: www.gloriacenter.org...]

Someone reading this paper with no background would assume that the Israeli government was a benign actor. No mention is made of the occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Would someone please tell me which parts of Gaza and the West Bank that Israel is occupying?

re: #1 Sharmuta

The UN couldn't be more corrupt if it tried.

Oh yeah?

UNRWA, the country of the blind, finds the one clear-eyed man "tendentious and partial."

re: #1 Sharmuta

The UN couldn't be more corrupt if it tried.

Yes it can. Durban II is coming up and the US still hasn't pulled out.

conduct more stringent background checks on its employees so it does not hire Palestinians who are members of terrorist organizations

Then who will they hire? Will they require their new employees to resign from Hamas and Fatah first? Like that means anything.

re: #11 MandyManners

Injecting facts into this discussion will not be accepted.
Occupiers occupy. That is all.

re: #11 MandyManners

Would someone please tell me which parts of Gaza and the West Bank that Israel is occupying?

To the UN, it is the parts between Gaza and the Mediterranean, and the West Bank that Israel is "occupying".

BBIAB - got to get ready for work.

The placement of the UN here after World War II probably made sense.
It has now become dominated by angry Third World Countries & Islamic mouth pieces.
A day without America & Israel bashing is a day that they are not in session. They should be served notice that the must relocate, but I won't hang by my eye brows.

re: #11 MandyManners

Would someone please tell me which parts of Gaza and the West Bank that Israel is occupying?

That question always stops the Israel-haters in their tracks. I use it often.

re: #15 Kosh's Shadow

Then who will they hire? Will they require their new employees to resign from Hamas and Fatah first? Like that means anything.

They could always have them sign a "pledge".
Even though it's politically incorrect, it's harmless.

/yeah, better add one

Lindsay recommended "shifting from a "status-based" system - whereby anyone who was defined as a refugee received aid even though he or she was more well-off than others - to a "needs-based" system of aid delivery."

Aid only for those who need it? Elimination of a victim class designation?
Blasphemer!

Heh. The truth hurts...

How 'bout this?

UNRWA is benevolently funded by the U.S. (31%) and the European Union (nearly 50%) — only 7% of the funds come from Muslim sources. Thanks to the West’s largesse, nearly the entire population of Gaza lives in a kind of lowly but regularly paid dependence. One result of this unlimited welfare is an endless population boom...

The West pays for food, schools, medicine and housing, while Muslim nations help out with the military hardware. Unrestrained by such necessities as having to earn a living, the young have plenty of time on their hands for digging tunnels, smuggling, assembling missiles and firing 4,500 of them at Israel since 2006...

The problem can only be solved by the U.N. replacing UNRWA and with UNHCR whose mandate it is to resettle refugees. This of course means that the Arabs and the West have to take such refugees in.

kinda sort related corruption.

they’ll turn us all into beggars ’cause they’re easier to please

James Lindsay, who served as UNRWA’s legal advisor and general counsel from 2002 until 2007, said the agency needs to adopt reforms if it is to adequately address concerns that it has politicized the Palestinian refugee issue.

Why is James Lindsay a "former" legal advisor? Anybody know?

re: #17 Kosh's Shadow

To the UN, it is the parts between Gaza and the Mediterranean, and the West Bank that Israel is "occupying".

I wonder how many of the UNRWA non-Palestinian workers have something with "From the river to the sea" written on it in their possession. I'm surprised it's not on their official UN stationery...

re: #25 ratherdashing

Why is James Lindsay a "former" legal advisor? Anybody know?

By the tone of his report, I'd guess he quit in disgust.

The agency is disappointed by the findings of the study, found it to be tendentious and partial, and regrets in particular the narrow range of sources used,” Andrew Whitley, director of the UNRWA representative office at UN headquarters in New York, said.

Andrew Whitley sounds like a spoiled rotten kid who never grew up, his parents were probably university professors and the little sissy enjoyed a life of peaches-and-cream. He's never been punched in the nose at the private schools he attended and he's never had to make a stand in a parking lot.

He never had to choose between Good and Evil...Little Andrew is the perfect UN Representative.

It really steams me that the Un says such dumb things as, ''we are waiting to get answers for WHY Hamas sent rockets into civilian areas before we say they committed war crimes.''
They don't seem to wait a nano-second before they accuse Israel of such crimes.
And later when it turns out the IDF didn't do what they were falsely accused of doing the UN apology is nowhere to be found.

re: #8 Abu Bin Squid

Get Arnold Ziffle out of the hanger!

ROFL

re: #25 ratherdashing
I did a quick Google search and the same line is repeated in several articles. I've yet to find one stating why he left, although I agree with Spiny Norman that he must have been fed up.
I did find this:
James Lindsay, now a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East ... Established by the US and Britain after the 1948 war,...

re: #30 MarineMomSue

ROFL

the intro

"The problem can only be solved by the U.N. replacing UNRWA and with UNHCR whose mandate it is to resettle refugees. This of course means that the Arabs and the West have to take such refugees in."

Abolish the UNRWA - Full citizenship and rights to so-called Palestinian refugees in their homelands where they were born - i.e., Syria, Lebanon and Jordan. To those in Gaza, repatriation to Egypt. To those in West Bank, repatriation to Jordan. The Palestinians may also be resettled in other nations that open their doors to them.

185,000 Jews were expelled from Muslim lands after 1948. No reparations, no "right of return" demands, no catalogues of lost property, no remaining refugee camps to be found--every last one of them assimilated either in Israel, US, Canada or elsewhere.

Between 500,000 and 700,000 (at the most) Arab "Palestinian" refugees left Israel--many voluntarily or at the instructions of religious or political leaders--during the 1948 War of Independence.

And what do we have today? 1,500,000+ whiners who have become an NGO/UN moneymaking racket.

Thank goodness at least one courageous UN employee has spoken up.

And in other terrorist activity...

Video appears to show hostage killing in Pakistan

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (AP) -- A graphic video delivered to The Associated Press on Sunday appeared to show the execution of a Polish engineer by Pakistani militants who had held him captive for more than four months.

Pakistan has seen a rash of kidnappings and attacks on foreigners in recent months, mostly blamed on al-Qaida and Taliban militants trying to destabilize the secular government and punish it for supporting the U.S.-led war in neighboring Afghanistan.

An American U.N. worker was abducted last week in the border town of Quetta in southwestern Pakistan. Police said Sunday they were investigating a purported separatist group's claim of responsibility.

The seven-minute execution video appears to show the Polish hostage, Piotr Stanczak, sitting on the floor flanked by two masked men. Off camera, a militant briefly engages him in conversation before three others behead him. One of the hooded men then addresses the camera, blaming Pakistan for the execution for not agreeing to their demands to release Taliban prisoners.

If confirmed, Stanczak's death would appear to be the first killing of a Western hostage in Pakistan since U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl was beheaded in 2002.

The video was given to an Associated Press reporter in northwest Pakistan on a flash drive by an intermediary who said he obtained it from the Taliban. The AP has elected not to distribute images from the execution itself. It was unclear whether it was given to other media outlets.

UNRWA Representative Office, New York
Director, UNRWA Representative Office - Andrew Whitley
One United Nations Plaza, Room DC1-1265, New York, NY 10017, USA
Telephone: (+ [no phone numbers allowed], (00 [no phone numbers allowed]
Facsimile: (+ [no phone numbers allowed]

re: #34 undhimmicratic

185,000 Jews were expelled from Muslim lands after 1948. No reparations, no "right of return" demands, no catalogues of lost property, no remaining refugee camps to be found--every last one of them assimilated either in Israel, US, Canada or elsewhere.

Between 500,000 and 700,000 (at the most) Arab "Palestinian" refugees left Israel--many voluntarily or at the instructions of religious or political leaders--during the 1948 War of Independence.

And what do we have today? 1,500,000+ whiners who have become an NGO/UN moneymaking racket.

Thank goodness at least one courageous UN employee has spoken up.

Dinged and favorited.

However, I thought it was closer to a million Jews that left Arab countries around 1948? Or are you referring to ones who were forcibly removed?

HOW IS UNRWA FUNDED?

UNRWA operations are financed almost entirely by voluntary contributions from governments and the European Union, which account for 94 per cent of all income. Most contributions are received in cash, although 1.5 per cent of income is received in kind, mainly as donations for food commodities for distribution to needy Palestine refugees. Five per cent of income is from United Nations bodies to cover staffing costs, including the funding of 119 international staff posts by the United Nations Secretariat. Unlike the United Nations as a whole, UNRWA has no system of assessed contributions.

The Agency’s largest donors in 2007 were the United States, the European Commission, Sweden, Norway and the United Kingdom. As of 31 May 2008, the Agency's largest contributors for 2008 are the United States, the European Commission, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Norway and the Netherlands.

UNRWA’S BUDGET

UNRWA’s General Assembly-approved cash budget for 2008 is US$ 541.8 million. This funds the Agency’s ongoing Education, Health and Relief and Social Services activities. As of 31 May 2008, contributions pledged to this cash budget by UN and donors total US$ 444.4 million in addition to US$ 32.3 million which is expected to be pledged during the year. An additional US$ 56.8 million has been budgeted for projects and US$2.8 million for in-kind donations.

In keeping with previous years, UNRWA will likely have to initiate measures to reduce implementation of some planned activities to bring its regular budget closer to its likely income from donors. In 2007, UNRWA’s regular cash budget was approved at a level of US$487.1 million. However, actual net expenditure was US$ 404.4 million while income was US$ 438.5 million.

Since October 2000, UNRWA has launched Emergency Appeals to the donor community to fund the Agency's Emergency Programmes in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. From October 2000 until December 2007, the Agency received a total of US$826.6 million in pledges, which is less than two-thirds of the amount requested. In December 2007, UNRWA launched an appeal for US$ 237.7 million to cover the cost of its emergency activities in 2008. In May 2008 the requirement was revised and increased to US$ 263.4 million. Against 2008 Appeal UNRWA received US$ 128.3 million in pledges as of 31 May 2008. Please find additional information on the Emergency Appeals below.

In August 2000, Karen AbuZayd became an Assistant Secretary-General of the
United Nations, appointed to the post of Deputy Commissioner-General of the
United Nations Relief and Works Agency. On 1 April 2005, she became the
Acting Commissioner-General and the UN Secretary General appointed her to
the post of Commissioner-General on 28 June 2005.
From her base in Gaza, she helps to oversee the education, health, social
services and micro-enterprise programs for 4.6 million Palestine refugees.
Since September 2000, her work has concentrated on providing emergency
assistance to, and generating employment for, the victims of the current crisis in
the occupied Palestinian territory.
Before joining UNRWA, Karen worked for the Office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees for 19 years. She began her humanitarian career
in Sudan in 1981, dealing with Ugandan, Chadian and Ethiopian refugees
fleeing from war and famine in their own countries. From Sudan she moved to
Namibia in 1989 to help coordinate the return of apartheid era refugees, a
successful repatriation operation which led to elections and independence. A
year later the Liberian civil war erupted and Karen moved to Sierra Leone to
head the UNHCR office in Freetown, initiating a new emergency response that
settled 100,000 Liberians in 600 villages along the Liberian/Sierra Leone
border.
From 1991-93 in UNHCR's Geneva Headquarters, Karen directed the South
African repatriation operation and the Kenya-Somali cross-border operation.
She left Geneva to go to Sarajevo as Chief of Mission for two years during the
Bosnian war. Four million displaced and war-affected people were kept alive by
UNHCR's airlift and convoy activities, while thousands more were protected
from ethnic cleansing by a UNHCR presence. Karen's last four years in UNHCR
were spent as Chef de Cabinet to High Commissioner Sadako Ogata and as
Regional Representative for the United States and Caribbean, where she
focused on funding, public information and the legal issues of asylum-seekers.
Before joining UNHCR, Karen lectured in Political Science and Islamic Studies at
Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda and at Juba University in southern
Sudan. She earned her B.Sc. at DePauw University in Indiana and her M.A. in
Islamic Studies at McGill University in Canada. She has two children.
With Headquarters in Gaza and Amman, UNRWA provides education, health,
and relief and social services to Palestine refugees living in Jordan, Lebanon,
the Syrian Arab Republic, theWest Bank and the Gaza Strip. With some 27,500
employees, mainly locally recruited teachers and health workers, UNRWA is the
largest United Nations Agency in terms of staff. The Agency's 2008 General
Fund budget is US$ 545 million.

The above quotes from the UNWRA web site. Shameful.

UNWRA doesn't wish to see an end to the conflict, for that would mean the end of their laughable and corrupt agency, which employs tens of thousands of people. It is in their interest that refugees exist and continue to exist.

re: #33 Truth Dr.

" The Palestinians may also be resettled in other nations that open their doors to them.

Unfortunately, Barry O. is laying out the welcome (dhimmi) mat.

[Link: joshuapundit.blogspot.com...]

re: #41 Mad Mullah

UNWRA doesn't wish to see an end to the conflict, for that would mean the end of their laughable and corrupt agency, which employs tens of thousands of people. It is in their interest that refugees exist and continue to exist.

Of course. No different from our own social services agencies, just on a biger scale.

The UN's Joe Friday...Give me the non-facts ma'am, just the non-facts.

re: #37 astronmr20

My understanding is that 185,000 were driven out with the shirts on their back and little more--many during progroms and intense persecution. Doubtless there were more who thought it was a good idea to hit the road!

I heard this from a panel at the Herzliya Conference last week--I don't have a link because as far as I know the transcripts haven't yet been translated into English.

Here's a video interview with asshat Andrew Whitley:

During the interview, he mentions that international observers paid for by the US government ensure the neutrality of the UN schools and that they are not being used by militants to launch strikes or store arms. In fact, he says he only knows of one incident in which militants have launched a strike from a UN school. He must have missed all of the IDF footage. Asshat.

re: #35 Pianobuff
Here we go again. It seems these head choppers never learn. We had to watch that garbage come out of Iraq for 2 years until they ended up with a 500 pounder slamming through their roofs. That seemed to tame them down considerably. I guess now with BHO in office they see another propaganda opportunity.

Here's another reason UNWRA will never go away:

With some 27,500 employees, mainly locally recruited teachers and health workers, UNRWA is the largest United Nations Agency in terms of staff.

UNWRA is probably the single largest employer (aside from the laughably-named "Palestinian security services") in Gaza.

Basically, it's the UN's version of the Obama "stimulus" plan. Tens of thousands of make-work "temporary" government jobs that will never go away.

re: #49 buzzsawmonkey

you're right--I completely screwed that up. I meant to type 850,000! So sorry...

re: #51 undhimmicratic

you're right--I completely screwed that up. I meant to type 850,000! So sorry...

Ah.. gotcha. That reconciles it for me.

Later all I smell brats cooking!

re: #53 Scorch

Later all I smell brats cooking!

Boiling in beer?

hi everyone,
Just wondered if anyone feels like the government and main steam media is ignoring the terrible crisis both in Australia and in Kentucky--or in a little town around here Coatsville, where someone seems to be trying to burn down the town?

I know I'm going to get chewed on for saying this, but damn I'm tired of talk about ID and evolution. Here, in Philadelphia, the first institution in the US to recognize Darwin's work--celebrates that event today.

re: #53 Scorch

Later all I smell brats cooking!

Yeah...we had them with boiled potatoes, onions and rye bread, plus a pile of mustard!

Well, duh. I posted this on the wrong thread. Just goes to show you how a night of binge drinking (not) can affect the brain. actually, it was binge GRADING, for my freshman English composition students. Arrrgh

re: #22 jaunte

STONE HIM!

James M. Lindsay is currently at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. Here's his bio page:

[Link: www.utexas.edu...]

I'm not so sure it's fair to say he was a former top official of the UNRWA. He doesn't list that as one of his achievements or positions. He has done work on "reform" of the UN for the National Security Council.

UNRWA is incapable of reforming itself.

“The study ignores the context in which UNRWA operates and the tight line the agency walks due to various pressures,” Whitley said. “Someone reading this paper with no background would assume that the Israeli government was a benign actor we are free to be even-handed. No mention is made of the occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip fact that they'll kill us if we don't report the story their way.”

Fixed.

re: #6 MrPaulRevere

Charles, David Klinghoffer is at it again...The Strange Case of Little Green Footballs III..."Johnson never makes the connection between the Darwinism he defends and the sapping of Western confidence that he laments." Talk about confused! One day he says embracing 'Darwinism' led to the Holocaust and the next day he says its responsible for 'sapping western confidence'. Try wrapping your head around that! [Link: www.evolutionnews.org...]

Klinghoffer doesn't say that Darwinism is responsible for sapping western confidence. He says that the (morally correct) scrapping of whatever Darwinian justifications had been given for imperialism and western rule carried with it, as baby with bathwater, the scrapping of an older and legitimate religious and cultural basis for western self-confidence and assertiveness.

He then goes on to link secularization to loss of confidence. Now there have been some highly secular but unapologetic cultures: China, and Russia for a time, and maybe Japan. But the Russians had made Communism into a worldly religion, making it a matter of faith and dogma that the Communist system would triumph over capitalism in providing worldy goods for workers. When that failed, faith failed. The Chinese and the Japanese are rather open about their belief that their people are better workers, better in school, and better at maintaining an orderly society. That's not exactly racist, but Westerners wouldn't be caught dead saying there was anything better about western people.

Secular westerners are going to need to rethink some things. It's a mistake to dismiss the Judeo-Christian tradition that built the west. Even if the old teachings were mistaken on matters of science, (and the materialists of the day were quite mistaken as well, except when they prudently forbore to claim knowledge), the bulk of this tradition had to do with how to arrange society. Is monogamy an essential bulwark of a society of free people? Is there a law beyond the first law of the tyrant: might makes right? Is property a morally defensible human institution? We should confidently and unapologetically stick to our guns on these things. The wise ones of days gone by were not fools. The old wisdom is not rubbish, and our beliefs on these things are indeed better.

Sounds like a case of the Master of the Obvious (former) being chided by a Master of Deception (current).

re: #63 lostlakehiker

"Klinghoffer doesn't say that..."

You were smart to put this on a dead thread, I got a bunch of down-dings in a previous thread just for saying that it's wrong to shutdown the discussion :)

avoid involvement in political affairs

Involvement in political affairs has become UNRWA's raison d'etre. They'll give it up when it's pried from their cold dead hands.

/faster please

I disagree with you about the motive, Charles. I think UNRWA employees and bureaucrats are afraid that if the suggested reforms are implemented, the agency could shrink in size, become less political, and become more efficient, costing them prestige (which in government bureaucracies is based in part upon size), patronage, and jobs.

We're seeing genuine attempts to reform UN agencies here. That, in itself, is amazing.

re: #1 Sharmuta

The UN couldn't be more corrupt if it tried.

The UN hasn't been credible since they allowed Arrafat to address the council with a sidearm on his belt.

re: #4 Macker

Doesn't this qualify as a Flying Pig moment?

i think the U.N. perfers FATAH as they split the spoils with them. THE HAMASSHOLES want to keep it all.

"Someone reading this paper with no background would assume that the Israeli government was a benign actor"

...you whine about people with no background because you know your lies won't work on the informed uninvolved...

"No mention is made of the occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.”

wtf are you talking about?

:)

re: #39 Truth Dr.

In August 2000, Karen AbuZayd became an Assistant Secretary-General of the
United Nations, appointed to the post of Deputy Commissioner-General of the
United Nations Relief and Works Agency. On 1 April 2005, she became the
Acting Commissioner-General and the UN Secretary General appointed her to
the post of Commissioner-General on 28 June 2005.
From her base in Gaza, she helps to oversee the education, health, social
services and micro-enterprise programs for 4.6 million Palestine refugees.
Since September 2000, her work has concentrated on providing emergency
assistance to, and generating employment for, the victims of the current crisis in
the occupied Palestinian territory.
Before joining UNRWA, Karen worked for the Office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees for 19 years. She began her humanitarian career
in Sudan in 1981, dealing with Ugandan, Chadian and Ethiopian refugees
fleeing from war and famine in their own countries. From Sudan she moved to
Namibia in 1989 to help coordinate the return of apartheid era refugees, a
successful repatriation operation which led to elections and independence. A
year later the Liberian civil war erupted and Karen moved to Sierra Leone to
head the UNHCR office in Freetown, initiating a new emergency response that
settled 100,000 Liberians in 600 villages along the Liberian/Sierra Leone
border.
From 1991-93 in UNHCR's Geneva Headquarters, Karen directed the South
African repatriation operation and the Kenya-Somali cross-border operation.
She left Geneva to go to Sarajevo as Chief of Mission for two years during the
Bosnian war. Four million displaced and war-affected people were kept alive by
UNHCR's airlift and convoy activities, while thousands more were protected
from ethnic cleansing by a UNHCR presence. Karen's last four years in UNHCR
were spent as Chef de Cabinet to High Commissioner Sadako Ogata and as
Regional Representative for the United States and Caribbean, where she
focused on funding, public information and the legal issues of asylum-seekers.
Before joining UNHCR, Karen lectured in Political Science and Islamic Studies at
Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda and at Juba University in southern
Sudan. She earned her B.Sc. at DePauw University in Indiana and her M.A. in
Islamic Studies at McGill University in Canada. She has two children.
blockquote>
Where ever this woman goes there is tradegy and horror
/

Dear UNRWA

Israel *is* a benign actor.

Sincerely,

An unbiased observer.

Of course no mention of terrorism is made by Andrew Whitley. We can't have the facts in an UNRWA response because it is too confusing.

I sincerely think this discussion about UNRWA has nothing to do with politics, and everything with keeping their customer base. After all, where else can you find refugees who can't return to their homeland after 65 years? Oh, wait...

When Israel pulled out of Gaza they lost the chance to marginalize UNWRA.

There is one solution, however. Promote a General Assembly or even better Security Council resolution to have UNWRA's definition of refugee replaced by the UNHCR definition. Isn't that what your congressman is for?

The Palis will scream because anyone not born 60yrs ago ceases to be a refugee.

The best reform for UNRWA would be to abolish it altogether.