Fayyad to request $5 billion to launch Palestinian state

[bemildred]

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad will meet with Western representatives in Brussels on Wednesday and request nearly 5 billion dollars in investment to launch a Palestinian state.

The Palestinian Authority's three-year development plan, obtained by Reuters, requires 1.467 billion dollars this year, 1.754 billion dollars in 2012 and 1.596 billion dollars for 2013.

"We have distributed the plan to the donors and they have welcomed it," Palestinian Planning Minister Ali al-Jarbawi said

The plan will be presented formally to donor countries at a pledging conference in June, he said.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/international/fayyad-to-request-5-billion-to-launch-palestinian-state-1.355757

[WatsonT]

1. As long as it doesn't come from us

We're spending that money bombing Libya.

I guess we could also drop some bombs on Palestine, but that's about it.

[Rage for Order]

2. Iran, Syria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Lebanon can each give $1 billion

There; that was easy

[whosinpower]

3. Easy?!?

Is that what you want - the PA beholding to THOSE nations?

Talk about stupid.....

[Rage for Order]

4. Frankly, I don't care where they get the money as long as they don't get it from the US

We're broke.

[Mosby]

6. the US isn't broke

You're falling for a republican talking point.

[Rage for Order]

9. Does the US have a $14 trillion national debt or not?

The answer is yes, we do have a http://www.usdebtclock.org/">$14 trillion national debt. Our http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/10/15/federal-budget-deficit-below-expectations">budget deficit for 2010 was $1.3 trillion. If we cut our budget (or raised taxes, or a combination of the two) by $1.55 trillion we could pay $250 billion a year towards the principal of the debt for the next 60 years and have the debt paid off by 2072. This isn't a "Republican talking point", it's simple math.

They can ask some other sucker for handouts. Or perhaps they can ask Yasser Arafat's wife to http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/11/07/60minutes/main582487.shtml">return the billions he stole before he died.

From the CBS link:

All told, U.S. officials estimate Arafat's personal nest egg at between $1 billion and $3 billion.

That was several years ago. I'm sure his estate is worth much more than that now.

[bemildred]

5. Palestinians hail international 'birth certificate' of statehood

Donor countries meeting in Brussels recognized on Wednesday that the "Palestinian Authority (PA) is above the threshold of a functioning state" - an assessment immediately hailed as a "birth certificate" for a Palestinian state by PA premier Salam Fayyad.

In recent months, the World Bank, the United Nations and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have certified that Fayyad's state-building plans are on track for completion in mid-2011.

"We can today conclude that the Palestinian Authority is above the threshold of a functioning state," Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store said after chairing a meeting of the Ad Hoc Liason Committee, a panel of donor countries to the Palestinians.

"It amounts to a birth certificate for the reality of Palestinian statehood," Fayyad told reporters after the talks in Brussels.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/palestinians-hail-international-birth-certificate-of-statehood-1.355821

[oberliner]

7. Will Gaza be a part of the state?

If so, how will the fact that they do not recognize the legitimacy of the West Bank government be reconciled?

If not, what happens to Gaza?

[bemildred]

8. Good questions. nt