Op-ed in Jpost cites PMW findings on PA salaries to terrorists
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Abbas, you can’t have your cake and eat it, too
The PA has long misappropriated US and European aid to support jailed terrorists and their families, to the tune of more than half its annual budget.
President Donald Trump recently tweeted a clear, long overdue message to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas: you can’t have it both ways.
Offended by Trump’s December speech, which clearly left Jerusalem’s final boundaries to be negotiated by both sides, Abbas overreacted with trademark false accusations, and a huffy rebuttal of the US role as peace broker.
Like the proverbial farmer sawing off a tree limb but forgetting he’s sitting on it, Abbas overlooked the billions in US aid funneled to the PA since the mid-’90s, which last year alone totaled more than $730 million in all sectors – economic and humanitarian, security and justice, and UNRWA. Abbas’s tantrum backfired. It’s payback time.
Trump recently tweeted: “We pay the Palestinians hundreds of millions of dollars a year and get no appreciation or respect. They don’t even want to negotiate a long overdue peace treaty with Israel. So why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?” It’s about time America balanced these books.
The PA has long misappropriated US and European aid to support jailed terrorists and their families, to the tune of more than half its annual budget – $300 million annually, and more than $1b. in the past four years. Convicted terrorists even got a 13% raise last year (their families gained 4%), according to Palestinian Media Watch.
[http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Abbas-you-cant-have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too-537050]