Daniel Pipes: Bankrolling the enemy

Published: December 17, 2007, 3:37 pm

Funding the Palestinians while war still rages is a bad ideaLavishing funds on Mahmoud Abbas' Palestinian Authority apparatus in the West Bank has been a mainstay of Western (including Israeli) policy since Hamas seized Gaza in June. But this open spigot has had counterproductive results and must be stopped.Some background: In 2006, the European Union and its member states gave US$815 million to the Palestinian Authority, while the United States sent US$468 million. When Canada and other donors are included, the total receipts come to about $1.5 billion.And the windfall keeps growing. President George W. Bush requested a US$410 million supplement in October, beyond a US$77 million donation earlier in the year. And the European Union reportdly has funneled nearly $2.5 billion to the Palestinians this year.Looking ahead, Abbas announced a goal to collect pledges of $5.8 billion in aid for 2008-10 at the Donors' Conference for the Palestinian Authority attended by over 90

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