Can you believe that UNRWA, the UN agency established just for the Palestinians, had a 2012 budget of $907,907, 371? It must be a misprint. Who can count that high?
http://proisraelbaybloggers.blogspot.com/2013/09/unrwa-you-cant-run-from-truth.html
If this astronomical amount is accurate, can you imagine the corruption? I mean this would make Yassir Arafat blush.
That figure was according to the JPost
ReplyDeletehttp://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-Ed-Contributors/Whose-taxpayers-fund-UNRWA-322135.
It may actually be higher.
At http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/4200D5E9F483A595852579CD004FFED5they state "UNRWA is funded almost entirely by contributions from States. The Agency’s core budget for 2012-2013 stands at USD 1.33 billion."
Yes, no matter how you look at it, its a lot of money
Yet they cannot find money for Syrian refugees, Rwandan refugees, etc...
ReplyDeleteYour comments on corruption are entirely gratuitous. Has anyone broken down the budget to see what the money is being spent on?
ReplyDeleteHave you considered what shape Israel would be in if all those refugees had been left sitting on the border with no support at all? (That's what the monarchies that engineered the 1947-1948 war would have preferred).
Siarlys,
ReplyDeleteBreak down the spending?? You can't spend that much money. Almost $908 billion in one year? Maybe they are giving every Palestinian $50 million a year.
What a racket!
Siarlys,
ReplyDeleteDo you think one billion dollars a year could buy a functioning sewer system for Gaza?
Why hasn't it?
The answer is the Palestinian leadership- a prosperous people aren't going to as likely to take up arms or blow themselves up.
The Palestinian people suffer because of the Palestinian leadership.
A functioning sewer system?
ReplyDeleteNot when Hamas demands metal piping. No sewers while the piping is used for rockets to fire at Israel.
Gary, the figure you posted is just under ONE billion dollars, not 907 billion. Many American cities spend far more on their annual budgets.
ReplyDeleteYes Dusty, nearly one billion dollars might well build a sewer system for Gaza. But it might strain a budget that size simply to provide food, housing, and medical care, and rudimentary education to the population being served.
I have no doubt that an overhaul of the whole UN approach to Palestinian refugees is in order. At the beginning, there were thousands of families who had been ordered by Arab monarchies (they were all monarchies then, except Lebanon, which was a half-hearted bit player), to get out of the way while the Jews were driven into the sea, and then they could go home.
As we know, the Jews were not driven into the sea, and the refugees couldn't go home under the circumstances. They had to somehow be provided for, and the monarchies had no intention of providing. By now, the orientation should be on developing a functional economy, which may be beyond what a refugee agency can do.
But Gary's math is off by a factor of 1000, and a rational critique requires a good deal more data than your average blog post can offer.
Siarlys,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the correction. I still say it is an absurd sum.
You would say that $907.907371 was an absurd sum. You don't want UN refugee agencies funding aid for Palestinians, period. You might even be right about that, but it would take more than just saying no to do it right.
ReplyDelete