 A new account set up to bypass an international boycott of Hamas has begun disbursing vital foreign aid to the Palestinians, with tens of millions of dollars expected to be used to partially pay civil servant salaries this week, the finance minister said Sunday. | And to partially feather the nest of Abu X, partially to pay for men and materiel to be exfiltrated to Lebanon. |
The move is key to restoring relations between the Palestinians and donor countries, but there is no end in sight to the boycott, which was imposed when Hamas came to power more than a year ago, Salam Fayyad told The Associated Press in an interview.| For those of you unfamiliar with the esteemed Mr. Fayyad, he is the State Dept.-approved bagman for Paleoland, whose Saville Row suits cost only slightly less than Saeb Erekat's. |
Fayyad, a U.S.-educated former International Monetary Fund executive and finance minister under the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, | Correction: His suits cost slightly *more* than Saeb's. And don't think Saeb doesn't seethe about it. |
returned to the Treasury in March after Hamas brought the moderate Fatah movement into the government. One of the alliance's main goals was to get the embargo lifted. But while most Western countries now deal with the non-Hamas members of the coalition, they've largely stuck to the boycott because the Islamic militants refuse to recognize Israel or renounce violence.
In mid-May, Fayyad established a new channel for foreign aid — an account in the Palestine Liberation Organization, the Palestinians' political umbrella organization of which Hamas is not a member. Donor countries can now send money to this account, without concern that banks involved in the transfer would run up against U.S. anti-terror regulations, he said. Fayyad said the U.S. has sent a letter to the European Union with such assurances. U.S. officials were not immediately available for comment Sunday.| That sound was my head colliding with the keyboard. Six years after 9-11 and we're funnelling cash to the PLO. |
It was not known how much money has already been disbursed or for what purposes.| If you don't want to hear the answer, don't ask the damn question |
"There has to be a better tomorrow for everybody, for both of us, Israelis and Palestinians," Fayyad said. "Where we are right now, is an extremely difficult and dangerous situation.'
His biggest challenge is to cover the bloated government payroll for 165,000 employees, half of them members of the security forces. The salaries feed about one-third of the Palestinians, and only partial payments were made under Hamas at irregular intervals.The finance minister has told civil servants there's still not enough money for full salary payments, but he would pay them half on a regular basis. This week, he'll make such a payment with $80 million the United Arab Emirates recently sent to the PLO account, he said. Fayyad said his ultimate goal is to restore the single Treasury account he operated before Hamas came to power in March 2006. After the account was dismantled by Hamas, donors bypassed the Finance Ministry by parceling out aid directly to different recipients, such as subsidies to tens of thousands of unpaid civil service workers.
In Brussels, Belgium, a senior EU diplomat said European countries are naturally eager to go back to the previous system, which included investment in infrastructure projects, schools and hospitals. The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
Fayyad said the other key to resolving the crisis is a resumption of Israeli tax transfers, which the Palestinian government could now demand with the new account in place. With Hamas' rise to power, Israel froze the transfer of some $55 million a month it collects on behalf of the Palestinians, much of it from Palestinian workers in Israel. That money amounts to about two-thirds of local Palestinian revenue, Fayyad said. Miri Eisin, an Israeli government spokeswoman, didn't rule out a resumption of transfers "if we find that there is a mechanism that is acceptable to the international community." |