In case you missed it, the Associated Press reported last week that the United States has transferred $200 million to the Palestinians “to help ease their government’s growing budget crisis.”

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad blamed his government’s worsening budget deficit on two main factors – Israeli restrictions on the Palestinian economy, and the “failure of some donors, particularly Arab states, to make good on their pledges.”

Everything about this brief article bears examining. 

First, the Palestinian economy, such as is, would be a whole different animal had someone 30 years ago someone reined in Yassir Arafat’s wholesale raiding of the donations meant for the Palestinian Arabs. 

Mrs. Arafat now lives in opulent luxury in Europe on proceeds meant for her people. 

And that’s another thing. 

Why does the world ignore the fact that the Palestinians an entire people on the international public dole? No one seems to hold them even partially responsible for their own condition. 

The fact of the matter is, the Palestinian Arabs have managed to turn every piece of property they have ever gotten their hands on into barren, war-scarred wasteland. 

They are the un-Jews. 

The surviving Jews of Europe, by contrast, took a desert wasteland and re-created from it a bustling, revenue-and goods-producing culture. 

Gaza is a good recent example. 

The Israelis were producing all sorts of agricultural products there, the means of production of which were left behind when they evacuated the area and handed it on a silver platter to the Palestinians. The latter immediately proceeded to destroy everything worth anything, and then began complaining, hands outstretched for charity, about not having an economy, and blaming the Israelis in the bargain. 

What the Holy Land could be if only the Palestinians would eschew violence can only be imagined. 

The other part of Fayyad’s comment, that the Arab countries consistently fail to fulfill their promises, is also noteworthy. 

Am I crazy or does the fact that the Arab countries publically pledge spectacular contributions to the welfare of their “Palestinian brothers” – the same brothers whose “suffering” they use to recruit terrorists for actions against Jews and Westerners worldwide – only to quietly fail to deliver, say everything about what’s going on here generally?

I think it says the Arabs are playing the whole thing for maximum PR effect. It’s what they do. It’s what the whole “Israeli/Palestinian conflict” is all about. 

But they do run a good game, don’t they? The world swallows it whole. 

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