Are America and the EU following Christ's command to "Love your Enemies" with hundreds of millions of dollars?

 

US investigates $293 million in missing aid

believed diverted to Taliban

JUL 23, 2024 9:00 AM BY CHRISTINE DOUGLASS-WILLIAMS

It should have been obvious to the Biden administration and everyone else that any aid going into Afghanistan would end up in the hands of the Taliban. It already emerged last year that this was exactly the case. But what does the Biden administration care about American taxpayers? According to Forbes in 2021, America already “provided an estimated $83 billion worth of training and equipment to Afghan security forces since 2001. Even CNN reported that the US gave “a total of $18.6 billion of equipment to the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) from 2005 to August 2021.” Of that total, “equipment worth $7.12 billion remained in Afghanistan after the US withdrawal was completed on August 30, 2021.”

It has also emerged that the Pakistani Taliban, too, are now using weapons and night vision devices that the Biden administration left behind in Afghanistan. The administration also abandoned Americans in Afghanistan.

Another $293 million of American taxpayer dollars to the Taliban is yet another debacle, to be expected of the Biden administration, with its America-Last policy.

US Investigates Missing Aid Possibly Diverted to Taliban

by Simcha Pasko, The Media Line, July 22, 2024:

A recent report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) raises concerns that approximately $293 million in US humanitarian aid intended for Afghanistan may have been diverted to the Taliban. The SIGAR report highlights compliance failures among Afghan bureaus receiving US funds, with only three of five providing the required documentation.

This has led the US State Department to recognize the necessity of an investigation to ensure that aid is not misappropriated. In response, Taliban chief spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid denied the allegations, stating that international aid is managed by NGOs and closely supervised by Afghanistan’s Ministry of Commerce, with no interference from the Taliban…..

 

European Commission Will Give 

$435 Million to Palestinian Authority

JUL 24, 2024 2:00 PM BY HUGH FITZGERALD

The European Commission has announced still another injection of aid to the corrupt and antisemitic Palestinian Authority — a cool $435 million this time, but don’t worry, it has some “conditions” attached. More on that grant, and the farcical conditions imposed by the EU on the PA, can be found here: 

EU Pledges $435 Million to Ailing Palestinian Authority

— With Conditions for Reform

by Jacob Frankel, Algemeiner, July 19, 2024:

The European Commission announced on Friday that it would provide 400 million euros ($435 million) in “short-term emergency financial support” to the ailing Palestinian Authority (PA) on the conditions that it address corruption, reduce unnecessary expenditures, and fix its educational curriculum, which has been widely condemned for promoting antisemitism and hatred of Israel.

The money will be disbursed in the form of grants and loans in three payments between July and September, the commission said in a statement, to address a Palestinian economic crisis which, some European officials fear, could lead to the collapse of the PA.

If that money is to be disbursed in three tranches, in July (which is almost over), August, and September, that is far too soon for the PA to rewrite, publish, and distribute its “new and improved” schoolbooks free from the odious antisemitic passages that for years the PA has promised donors it would remove, but somehow never does get around to it. The $435 million in aid will be pocketed, and those schoolbooks will remain as currently written, the PA will say, because “we haven’t time to prepare the new books…but we will by the end of this school year.” And the EU will accept this excuse, yet again. And how much would you be willing to bet that the PA will, as the EU demurely puts it, “fix its educational curriculum”? Since it has never done so in the past, despite the pleas and threats of donor countries, why should it believe the E.U. really means to enforce its threats now?

A “Letter of Intent” between the commission — the primary executive arm of the European Union (EU) — and the PA outlines the specifics of the funding and the agreed upon conditions needed to be met by the latter to secure the cash injection.

The conditions are aimed at “modernizing institutions, strengthening the rule of law, and reforming the social security system,” among other major reforms, according to the document.

The Letter of Intent mentions specific guidelines for the PA to adopt. To fight corruption, the EU is requiring the PA to enforce a mandatory retirement age for civil servants and to reduce government expenditures by 5 percent, among other measures….

Will the EU demand, as part of “fighting corruption” in the PA, that Mahmoud Abbas and his two sons Tarek and Yasser disgorge the $400 million in aid money they have stolen over the years? Many ordinary Palestinians would applaud that measure — they are sick of Abbas’ corruption, and 80% of those ruled by the Palestinian Authority want Abbas to resign. But disgorging some or all of the aid money he has stolen? There is, of course, no chance that Mahmoud Abbas would agree. The entire PA political echelon is corrupt. His inner circle of loyalists stay loyal, because they, too, are allowed a cut of the foreign aid, though, of course, nothing like the colossal sums that the Abbas family has been helping itself to for nearly twenty years.

As for mandatory retirement ages for all those aging Abbas loyalists in the government who are paid fat salaries, far beyond what they could receive in the private sector, how many people do you think will be forced to retire? These upper-level civil service jobs are what buys the loyalty of the cadre who surround Mahmoud Abbas. He’s not about to force his loyalists to retire. If he did so, he’d simply have to allow younger men, no less corrupt than those who would have retired, to make their fortunes, to take the place of those now required to retire. And should the PA, to satisfy the new EU demand, in fact put a required retirement age in place, at what age would that be reasonable? Assuming a retirement age of 70, or 75, or even 80, is implemented, on what grounds would one man, President Mahmoud Abbas, who is 88 years old, and has not run in a presidential election since 2005, when he was elected to a four-year term, and is now in the nineteenth year of that four-year presidency, be exempt from that mandatory retirement? Is he alone to be above the law? Why didn’t the EU spell out a demand that “everyone in the PA should be subject to the same retirement age,” and then provide a reasonable age limit itself?

The EU could have demanded that the Abbas family return the several hundred million dollars it had stolen. The EU could also have said it would withhold the $435 million aid package until such time as the PA held elections for a new government. 80% of the people in the PA territories want Abbas to resign. He and his sons will keep the $400 million he has stolen. Corruption will continue as the glue that holds the political echelon loyal to Abbas. No elections will be held until Abbas himself retires or, more likely, dies. “Pay-For-Slay” will continue, as the bedrock commitment to the “martyrs” who murder Israelis. And Ursula von der Leyen of the EU will eventually express her “extreme disappointment” at the failure of the PA to meet the conditions imposed on it and her hope that it will finally do so.

Fat chance, Ursula.

Why do I keep thinking of Charlie Brown trying to kick the football?

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Islam - Current Day > Palestinians Furious that Israel is making life easier for Gazans

..

Palestinian Leaders Alarmed That Israel Wants to Improve

Conditions for Palestinians

JUN 29, 2023 10:00 AM 

BY HUGH FITZGERALD

In the No-Good-Deed-Goes-Unpunished Department, Israel has decided to allow Palestinians in Gaza to use the Ramon Airport near Eilat for flights abroad. Until now, they have had to use airports in Amman and Cairo, requiring long and expensive trips overland from Gaza. More on the Israeli plans to help the Palestinians, and the angry response from Palestinian officials, can be found here: 

Residents of Gaza could soon fly from Israeli airport

The JC, June 26, 2023:

Residents of the Gaza Strip may soon be able to fly to Turkey via Israel’s Ramon Airport near Eilat.

“The pilot program could start as early as July when two flights are anticipated, Channel 12 reported.

The final decision is subject to approval by the security and political echelons. Gaza sources say the flights will be available to residents ages 35 and older.

Younger Palestinian males are regarded as much greater security risks.

They will be shuttled to the airport from the Erez crossing in the northern Gaza Strip. At present, Gazans travel via the Erez crossing by land to Jordan and fly abroad from there.

Gazans wishing to go abroad now have to endure a long trip that begins at the Erez crossing in Gaza, where they undergo a first security check, then they travel all across Israel to the Allenby Crossing, where they have a long wait, before undergoing a second security check by Jordanian border police. From there they make another trip overland from the border to the airport just outside Amman. The time, and money saved by travelers from Gaza, now able to fly from the Ramon Airport, will be considerable.

The announcement follows a similar one from the Israel Airports Authority in August 2022 that Palestinians from the West Bank would be able to take charter flights from Ramon Airport to Turkey.

The first flight from the airport with Palestinian Arabs on board departed on August 22. Its destination was not Turkey but rather Cyprus.

Elder of Ziyon notes:

While the announcement is not official, Palestinian travel agencies are already advertising the trips.

Right now, for Gazans to travel anywhere, they need to get permission to enter Egypt, which is difficult to get to begin with, and then travel by bus directly to Cairo’s airport – a six hour trip – and then wait hours more for their flights.

The trip from the Gaza crossings to Ramon is about three hours.

Gazans who will now be allowed to fly out from Ramon Airport will thereby cut their overland travel time in half.

Elder of Ziyon continued:

The Palestinian Authority announced that it opposes this and will do whatever it can to block Palestinians from traveling to Ramon Airport, saying that this will hurt relations with Jordan and Egypt, which would lose out on revenues from Palestinians traveling through those countries to get to Amman and Cairo, respectively. 

So the PA is more concerned with making sure that both Egypt and Jordan continue to profit from Palestinian travelers, rather than helping those travelers save money by using the Ramon Airport. It intends to block Palestinians – but how? — from using that airport.

The leftist terror groups Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which are closely linked with many “human rights” NGOs, issued  condemnations for allowing Gazans to fly to Turkey through Ramon Airport. 

Their reasons are a perfect example of the blind hatred that Palestinian leaders have for Israel – so much so that they are eager to make their own people miserable for nebulous political gain.

They called on Palestinians to boycott Ramon airport, saying that Israel is using this as a means to reduce terror from Gaza.

So Israel’s attempt to make things easier for Palestinian travelers from Gaza is a bad thing, because it could lessen their hostility to the Jewish state, and the impulse to sow terror. The cunning Zionists are helping the Palestinians, not out of any real sympathy, but only to decrease terrorism. What a diabolical people!

PFLP political analyst Zulfiqar Swergo said…“The Gaza government must carefully consider the strategic interests of the Palestinian people, and not forget that it is a government of resistance, and that this step will harm the idea of resistance that our people are now strongly adopting in the West Bank, and it must be aware that the ‘neutralization’ of the Gaza Strip is a major blow to the escalation of resistance in the West Bank.”…

The PFLP wants to keep the Palestinians in as deep a state of wretchedness as possible, in order to keep up their “spirit of resistance.” Any attempt by Israel to make their lives easier is misperceived as part of a plot to weaken Palestinian hostility, when it only reflects the decency of the Israelis, who are trying to ameliorate the Palestinian condition, without harming Israel’s security, wherever possible. Opening up Palestinian access to Ramon Airport is one such way.

DFLP political analyst Mahmoud Mardawi complained that “there is an economic goal for the occupation behind this matter, especially since none of the Zionists went to use Ramon Airport when it opened.”

He warned about “the political motives and the affirmation of the apartheid policy that the occupation practices day and night against our people” and called for all Palestinian institutions to “thwart this racist project.”…

In the twisted minds of some Arab analysts, such as DFLP’s Mahmoud Mardawi, Israel is only opening the Ramon Airport to the Palestinians in order to make money from the increase in air traffic at that airport. To the DFLP (Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine), it is better that the Palestinians continue to use the distant airports in Cairo and Amman, even if it will cost them far more. The economic well-being of the Palestinian travelers doesn’t matter. What counts is preventing the Zionists from taking Palestinian travel away from fellow Arabs.

Israel can’t win. If it imposes restrictions on the Palestinians – such as limiting Muslim visitors to Al-Aqsa Mosque during Ramadan to women of all ages, male children up to 12 years old, and men over 55 years old, in order to minimize the chances of violent riots — it will be denounced. If it lifts restrictions on Palestinian travelers, as with this new policy of allowing them to use Ramon Airport, it will also be denounced, for trying to weaken the “spirit of resistance,” by making life easier for the Palestinians.

The worse things are for the Palestinians, according to the leaders of the terror groups, the stronger will be their will to resist. So keep them immiserated. It’s for the very best of causes – to destroy the Jewish state and replace it with a 23rd Arab state, the state of “Palestine, that will soon be free/From the river to the sea.”

'Silent Night': Persecuted Palestinian Christians Kept Out of Sight

The Middle East’s forgotten Christians

Raymond Ibrahim, Front Page

This article was first published by the Gatestone Institute.  Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center.

“The moment they [Hamas] took control [of the Gaza Strip], they started persecuting us, ruining our churches and forcing Christians to convert to Islam.”

Such are the recent recollections of Kamal Tarazi, a 60-year-old Christian man from Gaza, now living in the streets of Nazareth.  Before fleeing, he tried to resist the Islamist takeover, including by calling on Muslims and Christians to unite against Hamas.  As a result, “I was jailed several times. Do you know what a Hamas prison is? It is pure torture.” 

The report adds that “the Islamic group decided to keep him alive to avoid depicting themselves as persecutors of the local Christian population, something that could potentially anger the international community.”  He was eventually released, fled the region, returned, got imprisoned again, and fled again, permanently. “I am sure there are no more than 500 Christians left in Gaza,” he offers, “and it is just part of the general trend.”

His account is a reminder that, while reports on the persecution of Christians emerge regularly from other Muslim majority regions around the world, little is often mentioned of those Christians living under the Palestinian Authority.

This is not because they experience significantly less persecution than their coreligionists.  Open Doors, a human rights group that follows the persecution of Christians, notes in its most recent report that Palestinian Christians suffer from a “high” level of persecution, the source of which is, in its words, “Islamic Oppression”:

Those who convert to Christianity from Islam, however, face the worst Christian persecution and it is difficult for them to safely participate in existing churches. In the West Bank they are threatened and put under great pressure, in Gaza their situation is so dangerous that they live their Christian faith in utmost secrecy….The influence of radical Islamic ideology is rising, and historical churches have to be diplomatic in their approach towards Muslims.

It seems that the unique situation of Palestinian Christians—living in a hotly contested arena with much political and media wrangling in the balance—best explains the lack of news from that area.

“The Persecution of Christians in the Palestinian Authority,” a report by Dr. Edy Cohen, published by the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies earlier this year, goes a long way in validating this supposition.

First, it documents three anecdotes of persecution of Christians, all of which were back-to-back, and none of which were reported by so-called “mainstream media.”  Summaries follow:

April 25: “[T]he terrified residents of the Christian village of Jifna near Ramallah … were attacked by Muslim gunmen … after a woman from the village submitted a complaint to the police that the son of a prominent, Fatah-affiliated leader had attacked her family. In response, dozens of Fatah gunmen came to the village, fired hundreds of bullets in the air, threw petrol bombs while shouting curses, and caused severe damage to public property. It was a miracle that there were no dead or wounded.”

May 13: “Vandals broke into a church of the Maronite community in the center of Bethlehem, desecrated it, and stole expensive equipment belonging to the church, including the security cameras…. [T]his is the sixth time the Maronite church in Bethlehem has been subjected to acts of vandalism and theft, including an arson attack in 2015 that caused considerable damage and forced the church to close for a lengthy period.” 

May 16: “[I]t was the turn of the Anglican church in the village of Aboud, west of Ramallah. Vandals cut through the fence, broke the windows of the church, and broke in. They desecrated it, looked for valuable items, and stole a great deal of equipment.”

These three attacks, which occurred over the course of three weeks, fit the same pattern of abuse that Christians in other Muslim majority regions habitually experience.  While the desecration and plundering of churches is prevalent, so too are Muslim mob risings against Christian minorities—who tend to be perceived as dhimmis, or second-class “citizens,” who should be grateful to receive any toleration at all—whenever they dare speak up for their rights, as occurred in the village of Jifna on April 25:  “[T]he rioters” in Jifna, the report relates, “called on the [Christian] residents to pay jizya—a head tax that was levied throughout history on non-Muslim minorities under Islamic rule. The most recent victims of the jizya were the Christian communities of Iraq and Syria under ISIS rule.”

Moreover, as often happens whenever Christian minorities are attacked in Muslim majority nations, “Despite the [Christian] residents’ cries for help” in Jifna, “the PA police did not intervene during the hours of mayhem. They have not arrested any suspects.”  Similarly, “no suspects were arrested” in the two church attacks.

In short, Palestinian Christians are suffering from the same patterns of persecution—including church attacks, kidnappings and forced conversion—that their coreligionists suffer in other Muslim nations.  The difference, however, is that the persecution of Palestinian Christians has “received no coverage in the Palestinian media. In fact,” Cohan explains, “a full gag order was imposed in many cases”:

The only thing that interests the PA is that events of this kind not be leaked to the media. Fatah regularly exerts heavy pressure on Christians not to report the acts of violence and vandalism from which they frequently suffer, as such publicity could damage the PA’s image as an actor capable of protecting the lives and property of the Christian minority under its rule. Even less does the PA want to be depicted as a radical entity that persecutes religious minorities. That image could have negative repercussions for the massive international, and particularly European, aid the PA receives.

Considered another way, the bread and butter of the PA and its supporters, particularly in the media, is to portray the Palestinians as victims of unjust aggression and discrimination from Israel.  This narrative would be jeopardized if the international community learned that Palestinians are themselves persecuting fellow Palestinians—solely on account of religion.  It might be hard to muster sympathy for a supposedly oppressed people when one realizes that they themselves are doing the oppressing of the minorities in their midst, and for no other reason that religious bigotry.  

Because they are so sensitive to this potential difficulty, “PA officials exert pressure on local Christian[s] to not report such incidents, which threaten to unmask the Palestinian Authority as yet another Middle East regime beholden to a radical Islamic ideology,” Cohen states elsewhere:

Far more important to the Palestinian Authority than arresting those who assault Christian sites is keeping such incidents out of the mainstream media.  And they are very successful in this regard. Indeed, only a handful of smaller local outlets bothered to report on these latest break-ins. The mainstream international media ignored them altogether.

Notably, a similar dynamic exists concerning Muslim refugees.  Although West European politicians and media present them as persecuted and oppressed, in need of a welcoming hand, Muslim migrants themselves persecute and oppress Christian minorities among them—including by terrorizing them in refugee camps and drowning them in the Mediterranean.

Even mere numbers—which are inherently objective—confirm that Christians living under the PA are experiencing some unpleasantry that Muslims are not: although there were approximately 3,500 Christians in the Gaza Strip in 2007, there are now reportedly no more than 500-1,300.

As Justus Reid Weiner, a lawyer acquainted with the region, explains, “The systematic persecution of Christian Arabs living in Palestinian areas is being met with nearly total silence by the international community, human rights activists, the media and NGOs…  In a society where Arab Christians have no voice and no protection it is no surprise that they are leaving.”

Indeed, Christianity is, by all counts, on the verge of disappearing in the place of its birth—literally, as this includes Bethlehem, scene of the Nativity—thereby giving the otherwise seasonally relevant words, “Silent Night,” a more tragic significance. 

Perhaps God is removing His people from these areas before their destruction. Is that possible?

Hamas Invites Palestinian Authority to Control Gaza 'Unimpeded'

This is a curious step by Hamas and I can't help but wonder what they are up to. It does not seem likely that they are simply doing 'the right thing' for the people of Gaza whom they used as cannon fodder in their war against Israel. I fear something suspicious is going on.

By Ray Downs 

Hamas Chief Ismail Haniyeh flashes the victory gesture upon his arrival on the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing, in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday. The delegation of the Hamas leadership is returning from Cairo to Gaza after long meetings with the Egyptian government the agreement on reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah. Photo by Ismael Mohamad/ UPI. | License 

UPI -- The chief of Hamas' Political Bureau said Tuesday that the group is ready to receive the Palestinian Unity Government in Gaza.

"To show Hamas' seriousness to bring about reconciliation, we invite the unity government to come and assume its duties in Gaza unimpeded," Ismail Haniyeh told reporters during a press conference in the Gaza Strip, according to the Middle East Monitor.

He added: "We have opened the door wide before [Fatah's] decision-makers to take courageous decisions to unite the Palestinian people as our cause faces huge challenges. We are keen to end the siege on Gaza and we have exerted much effort to do this through the gate of the reconciliation."

The announcement is a reiteration of Hamas' decision on Sunday to dissolve its governing body in the Gaza Strip to give the Palestinian Authority full governmental control in Gaza.

Hamas has controlled the Gaza Strip for more than a decade, but recently agreed to demands set by Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, to hold elections, which haven't occurred since 2007.

Mahdi Abdul Hadi, director of Passia, an East Jerusalem think tank, told the New York Times that Haniyeh and Yehya Sinwar, Gaza's new prime minister, are eager to work with Abbas and Fatah, the controlling party in the Palestinian Authority.

"Lift the siege, let people breathe," Abdul Hadi said. "Electricity, water, salaries, medical -- instead of explosion."

Hamas Disperses Protesters as 1,000s Decry Gaza’s Deepening Energy Crisis

Palestinians chant slogans during a protest against the ongoing electricity crisis in Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip on January 12, 2017. © Mohammed Abed / AFP

It's curious that all the protesters seem to be young men.

A demonstration protesting electricity cuts in Gaza attended by several thousand people was broken up by Hamas before the crowd could reach the electric company. Gazans have had just a few hours of electricity a day for months, with blame laid all around.

The energy crisis hit the Gaza Strip late last year, worsening an already dire situation. Locals there were used to getting electricity in eight hour cycles, but they have now been reduced to just three or four hours. The cost of running generators has also soared, and few people could afford them even before the crisis worsened.

On Thursday, anger over power rationing escalated into a protest focused around the Jabaliya refugee camp. The chanting crowd threw stones at police, who fired into the air to disperse the protesters, according to Reuters. Ma’an news agency said security forces also targeted reporters covering the events. The crowd was prevented from reaching a power company, which they blamed for the crisis.

The clashes are the latest sign of growing popular discontent among Gazans, who number more than two million. They direct blame at all sides, including Israel, the Palestinian Authority, which controls the West Bank, and Hamas, which runs the Gaza strip – all of which play a role in providing electricity and the ongoing shortage.

Gaza has only received 45 percent of the power it requires over the past year and is currently receiving only a third of its daily demand of 450-500 MWs. A power plant in Nusairat generates only 30MW a day, both due to damage it sustained in Israeli bombings in 2006 and a shortage of fuel, which the Palestinian Authority provides. An additional 30MW come from Egypt and 120 MW are supplied by Israel.

The PA used to send the fuel it bought from Israel and Egypt to Gaza tax free, but stopped doing so due to its own financial troubles. This has angered Hamas, which has accused the rival faction of undermining the group’s authority in Gaza by exacerbating the crisis.

Moreover, Gaza’s electrical utility has been unable to collect payment from many of its customers, and is now owed around $1 billion in unpaid consumer bills. Meanwhile, the Israeli company is demanding that the Palestinian company pay the debt owed to it in full before it will increase supplies.

The crisis has worsened since temperatures began falling in winter, increasing demand for electricity. Poorer Gazans have had to switch to candles and firewood for lighting and heating, while those better off have started buying more diesel fuel for generators. This has caused a spike in demand and, consequently, prices that, in turn, has put many local businesses at risk of bankruptcy.

“We used to buy 1,500 liters of diesel week. Now we have to buy 4,000 liters at a cost of 20,000 shekels ($5,250) a week,” Haitham Badra, a bakery owner, told Reuters. “If the crisis continues much longer, all bakeries and restaurants in Gaza will collapse.”

Meanwhile, the power company in Gaza said: “If no substantial solutions are found the crisis will escalate and hours without power will increase.”

The Hamas Charter affirmed in 1988, that Hamas was founded to liberate Palestine, including modern-day Israel, from "Israeli occupation" and to establish an Islamic state in the area that is now Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Assistance has been suspended from many countries because Hamas refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist, and because Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization. Hamas has targeted civilians in Israel and as such has been accused by Human Rights Watch of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Perhaps if Hamas were to make it a priority to better Palestinian's lives rather than destroying Israel, they might get some help. But how much of the assistance they do get actually goes to improving Palestinian lives and how much goes to building Qassam rockets and tunnels beneath Israel?