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Jewish World Review / Dec. 3, 1998 /14 Kislev, 5759

Cal Thomas

Destroying Jewry on the installment plan

AFTER REPEATEDLY TELLING OVERBURDENED TAXPAYERS that there can be no tax cuts until "Social Security is saved,'' the Clinton administration has pledged to spend an extra $400 million in aid for the Palestinians. This decision is flawed for at least two reasons.

First, British aid directed at housing projects for needy Palestinians in Gaza was siphoned off and used instead to construct luxury apartments for supporters of Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat, according to the Sunday Times of London. Asked about this, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said that misspent British aid "is not an issue for the United States.'' Albright assured reporters that "every dollar (of U.S. aid) is accounted for and is completely transparent.''

Not exactly. A secret 600-page report last year by the PA's own auditing office found $323 million, nearly 40 percent, of the PA's annual budget had been wasted, stolen or misused. A December, 1995, General Accounting Office report said it was ``unable to independently verify (the Palestine Liberation Organization's) financial condition since the PLO was unwilling to provide us with requested accounting reports and supporting documentation.''

Arafat claims there has been a decline in the living conditions of Palestinians since the current "peace process'' with Israel began five years ago. He blames Israel because of its frequent border closures to curtail terrorism. But Arafat for more than 25 years has prevented outside aid, even in the refugee camps, in order to cynically manipulate world opinion against Israel and in favor of an independent Palestinian state.

The second flaw in the decision to sharply increase U.S. aid is the view held by this and previous administrations that Israel's enemies can be bought off and deterred in their unchanging objective to take all of the land for themselves. Even while accepting the new financial package, which totals more than $3 billion when other nations' contributions are factored in, Arafat repeated his promise to declare a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. He even referred to Jerusalem as "occupied territory.'' The status of Jerusalem and of any Palestinian entity is supposed to be reserved for talks on the final status between Israeli and Palestinian territory.

President Clinton is scheduled to go next week to the Middle East, where he will address a sham meeting of the Executive Committee and the Central Council of the PA. At that meeting, the PA supposedly will vote to repeal a section of the PLO Covenant calling for the destruction of Israel, which Arafat pledged to do at the agreement he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signed last October in Maryland. But the Palestinian media reveal that its side takes a different view of the forthcoming meeting from the United States and Israel.

According to the Middle East Media and Research Institute, the Arabic version of the Wye agreement (unlike the English) states the meeting to be addressed by President Clinton "will reaffirm the decisions of the Executive Committee and the Central Council regarding the amendment of the (Palestinian) Covenant.'' The Arabic version says it will be President Clinton, not the Palestinian side, who will "reaffirm his commitment to the peace process.'' No Palestinian reaffirmation is mentioned. Nor is any decision to abrogate part of the PLO Covenant. The head of the Palestinian negotiating team, Saib Ereiqat, said the meeting of the various Palestinian bodies "will convene to listen to Clinton, not to vote.''

Former U.N. arms inspector Scott Ritter told the Jerusalem Post Nov. 3: "The (Wye accord) is to be monitored by the CIA, but the real arbiter will be the State Department, and this is a cause for great worry. The entire effort has been politicized -- this is the Clinton administration's own Camp David, and they really can't afford to let it fail. Therefore they cannot be counted upon to be honest brokers.''

So, the Jews are again being sold out. In World War II, the U.S. wouldn't spend the money or the political capital to save Jews from the Nazis. Today it is spending the money, but giving it to Hitler's ideological descendants to help them finish the job. It is shameful and it won't work because the PA has made it abundantly clear to everyone, except those who will not see, that their ultimate objectives have not changed. Instead of achieving them through war and terror, which they so far have been unable to do, they will now win on the installment plan --- with the United States making the payments.