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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Arab states to aid Palestinians |
| 2006-02-02 |
| SAUDI Arabia and other Arab states are expected to send money to the Palestinian Authority within days to help it pay its employees after Israel stopped handing over tax payments. Caretaker prime minister Ahmed Qurie said the cash-strapped governing authority was forced to turn to its "Arab brothers" to cushion the economic blow of Israel's decision. But Mr Qurie and other Palestinian officials still held out hope that the Jewish state, under United States pressure, would agree to transfer the money it owed. Palestinian customs revenue collected by Israel is the main source of funding for the Palestinian Authority's budget, and is used to pay 140,000 government workers. Israel froze automatic payments yesterday, a week after the Palestinian election victory of the Islamic militant group Hamas. It had been due to transfer nearly $US55 million ($73 million). |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #10 gromgoru, when we lived in Europe Mr. Wife's employer hired Deloitte & Touche to do our income tax return every year, to reconcile the taxes between the U.S. and the countries where he worked. In fact, the company continued to pay D&T to do our taxes for five years after we returned, until various tax credits were exhausted. I imagine that at some point each year there is an exchange of credits between Germany and the U.S., or perhaps even actual money, to reconcile the balances of taxes collected in each country but owed to the other. And, should Germany ever finalize their tax laws for American ax-pats working there, D&T will have to recalculate ten years of tax returns for us, not to mention all the other Americans who'd been taxed in Germany since 1946. So as far as I can tell, this tax thingy is a first normalization of relations -- on at least one aspect -- of the relationship between Israel and the proto-State of the Palestinian Authority. As such, it perhaps would have been wiser for Israel to make it clear before now that continuation was entirely dependent on the Palestinians enacting their commitments, but better now than never. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-02-02 23:52 |
| #9 TW. it isn't that Israel was actually giving her own money to the PA. Know any other case where the country of employment transfers the income tax of "guest workers" to their country of origin, TW? p.s. Don't let Vincente Fox hear about it. |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2006-02-02 19:43 |
| #8 Of course you're right, gromgoru, and I'm glad Israel finally made this move. My meaning was that it isn't that Israel was actually giving her own money to the PA. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-02-02 19:11 |
| #7 By treaty TW, PA has to fight terrorism. |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2006-02-02 18:41 |
| #6 6, that's a very confusing statement. Who is being affable, and why is it unseemly? |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-02-02 17:41 |
| #5 Don't be so darn affable, it's unseemly. |
| Posted by: 6 2006-02-02 17:01 |
| #4 Anon1, as I understand it, the monies Israel is freezing are tax transfers -- eg taxes on the incomes of Palestinians working for Israeli companies, sales taxes on Palestinian goods sold in Israel, taxes levied on exports/imports to third countries handled through Israeli ports, that kind of thing. By treaty, these are actually Palestinian monies, not Israeli. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-02-02 13:38 |
| #3 What a great opportunity for the US to save $400 million a year and for the Wahabis to have $400 million less a year to preach hatred. Now, about that Egyptian black hole. P.S. Think the Arabs will pay the Israelis for the Palis past due electric bills? |
| Posted by: ed 2006-02-02 11:59 |
| #2 damn, you beat me to it tipper. Was gona post this myself. Looks like the electing of Hamas had good result after all. Israelis cease paying those who want to kill them. A good first step. On Daily Telegrapn breaking news, says story written by By Mohammed Assadi in Ramallah, West Bank. I'm wondering why the Jewish state "owed" money and why the US would pressure it to transfer it. From my memory, Israel doesn't owe them anything for goods/services rendered. It simply pays for the PA much like the US pays the UN: to be a good citizen and help them out. It's a charity. So they don't own them anything. Cut the funds. I also liked Bush saying he would wean the US off Saudi Black Skag and get us all on ethanol for cars instead. Goddam best president the US ever had since Lincoln. |
| Posted by: anon1 2006-02-02 11:48 |
| #1 Ummmmmmmmm...yup. Check's in the mail... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2006-02-02 11:41 |