End sleaze or lose aid, Arafat told

[Resistance]

Scotsman.com

THE World Bank has issued the Palestinian Authority with an ultimatum to put an end to rampant corruption or lose hundreds of millions of pounds of vital foreign aid.

The Bank’s top official in the region, Nigel Roberts, said Yasser Arafat had to stop the handing of large cash payments to his security commanders - used to keep them loyal to Arafat personally - and other financial practices open to corruption.

Otherwise, he said, the Palestinian Authority risked losing the support of the international community.

[Resistance]

1. seems like a reasonable demand to me

[Racenut20]

2. Is it a puzzle??

I know some Palestanian natives who are based in Toronto and live off and on in Florida who seem to have an awful lot of investment money.

[Jack Rabbit]

3. Your point?

You've said nothing about your friends in Toronto except that they are Palestinian and that they have money. What has that to do with Arafat and his cronies stealing money that is supposed to maintain public institutions in the Palestinian Territories? Perhaps it has something to do with it, but you didn't draw the connection.

Just because Arafat and his pals are crooks is no reason to assume that every Palestinian with money came by it dishonestly.

[packerssuck]

4. If Arafat doesn't get his foreign aid his wife in France won't be

able to afford all those servants. Yasir will have to go back into the airplane hijacking business.

[sushi]

5. If he's really that bad

and the people around him also crummy, why don't the Palestinian people throw them out? Like I said, people in many countries need education, education, and education. They're too much in awe of authority. I have read that people close to him live in fancy houses and all drive Audis. Maybe it's time for the UN to also oversee/run an election for the Palestinians, not only for the Iraqis.

Btw, how is the investigation into alleged connection with corruption by Israel's PM's family going? I haven't read anything about that lately.

[_Jumper_]

6. How can they overthrow him?

His is a dictator with more cops per square mile than any other dictator.

[sushi]

9. Actually, I think he must still have

quite a bit of support from his people. They still see him as the leader in their struggle for independence. I even think that when they get their state and he's still around they'd elect him president!

[Jack Rabbit]

7. Not necessarily

Arafat is bad, but vis a vis the Palestinian people he's no worse than many other dictators prospering at the expense of those he governs. He's probably not worse than Mugabe, who faces some intenral opposition that he manages to stiffle, or than was Saddam, who was overthrown by a foreign army.

[Name removed]

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