Foreign Aid, Part I: If That's the Way They Want It...

Shoshana Bryen
Senior Director for Security Policy
JINSA Report #: 1,066
March 3, 2011

http://www.jinsa.org/node/2232

Since the establishment of a Palestinian governing authority in 2003, the United States has provided it with more than $3.5 billion in aid, more than $2 billion since 2007 to "strengthen" Abu Mazen after the ouster of Fatah from Gaza. The 2010 figure was $500 million. The intrepid investigators at Palestinian Media Watch found the following bits of information on the USAID website under "Water Resources and Infrastructure/EJP - Emergency Jobs Program":

Successes: Completed 201 construction activities... Generated more than 350,000 person-days of employment benefiting approximately 1.5 million Palestinians. Graduated 117 Fellows from the Engineering Fellows Program... Completed four women's centers... with a combined budget of $658,400, generating 6,700 days of employment. Completed a girls' school... one of 15 girls' schools completed throughout the West Bank through EJP with a budget of $428,997, generating 3,495 days of employment. Completed five youth club projects to... benefit more than 38,900 youth and have a combined budget of $2,608,675, generating 19,610 days of employment to date... EJP completed nine health clinic renovations and new construction projects impacting 86,093 beneficiaries with a combined budget of $319,894, generating 5,797 days of employment to date... Life of Project: 09/30/2007-01/30/2011; Total Estimated Cost: $34,000,000."

The point being the utter idiocy of the Palestinian Authority (PA) announcement that 28 Palestinian municipalities will be boycotting American economic assistance and boycotting the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem (the U.S. "embassy" to the PA) because the United States vetoed the UN Security Council Resolution that would have called Israeli houses on the West Bank "illegal."

The PA's Hatem Abd Al-Qader said the boycott "will continue until the American administration changes its stance concerning the Palestinian cause, and especially concerning the issue of settlements, and apologizes to the Palestinian people and its president, Mahmoud Abbas." He added the United States, "cannot extort the Palestinian people and humiliate it with a bit of aid and support for Palestinian institutions."

OK, fine. We'll submit your plan to Senator Rand Paul.

Still on the financial front, YnetNews.com reported that Swiss business school IMD analyzed the world's 57 leading economies to determine which are best equipped to handle the global financial crisis. Denmark was first, followed by Singapore and Qatar (there was no ranking for political stability). Israel precedes the United States, Germany and Britain. Ynet noted, "The ranking is based on 20 criteria divided into four categories: Economic forecasts, the stability of the business sector, the stability of the government, and which society is better equipped to fare through the global financial crisis. The United States continued to hold the lead in the overall... rankings this year, but finished 28th in the new measure examining the resistance to the financial crisis."

Other countries of note: China (18), Taiwan (21), Germany (24), Japan (26), South Korea (29), Britain (34), France (44), Italy (47) and Spain (50). Russia was 51st, followed by Hungary, Croatia, Romania, Ukraine, Argentina, and Venezuela at the end.

Money is surely tight in the United States right now. That makes this a good time for the American government to be evaluating the political and military utility of its assistance to other countries - and for Sen. Paul and others to note that American security assistance to Israel is in a category entirely different from aid to the Palestinians both in terms of how well the country is able to use what is provided, and how the aid benefits the United States as well as the recipient.

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