Posted on 01/31/2006 10:51:21 PM PST by ScaniaBoy
Since Hamas's landslide victory, a debate has ensued over whether Israel ought to continue to remit taxes it has been collecting on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, even though the PA will now be controlled by a terrorist organization openly committed to Israel's destruction.
For just the payment scheduled for this month, some NIS 200 million has been collected, and for now the government seems to have decided not to transfer the funds to the PA.
Unmentioned in our public discourse, however, are the vast funds owed by the PA to Israel. This situation antedates all recent upheavals. No sooner was the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement signed in September 1995 did PA violations of economic relations protocols began to appear. Over time these breaches only grew until they reached anarchic proportions.
The Israel Electric Corporation's case, though not unique, is perhaps the most glaring. IEC supplies power to the PA both in the Gaza Strip and in Judea and Samaria. Its crews were assured safe passage throughout the territories in the 1995 protocols, but this was not guaranteed in practice. Hence IEC maintains the grid up to the entrance to Palestinian cities, and from there PA crews take over. Local officials are likewise responsible for directly billing customers.
Most Palestinians don't pay their bills and the PA doesn't pay IEC. The bottom line is that IEC, in effect, supplies power for free, though this power - including fuel, equipment, manpower and services - is unquestionably expensive. At this juncture, the PA's debt to IEC alone is a whopping NIS 220 million - the highest ever.
To understand how things have deteriorated, it serves to note that at the terror war's outset in 2000, the PA owed NIS 85 million to IEC. At that time, Gaza City's debt alone rose by a monthly NIS 15 million. These are sizable sums for even a large corporation to absorb.
Over time some of the money had been deducted from the customs and VAT revenues Israel has been collecting for the PA. However, the full debt was never deducted so as not to bankrupt the grossly mismanaged PA regime. The PA's debts to Israeli companies were allowed to mushroom, while Israeli tax transfers continued.
Above and beyond issues of the PA's hostile agenda, particularly under the aegis of its new Hamas overlords, it's patently unjust to dwell solely on Israel's obligations, while omitting mention of PA dereliction in honoring its most basic undertakings, like paying its bills.
The current transfer Israel was due to make this month would not quite cover the Palestinian debt to IEC, but it would go a long way if what IEC is due was deducted from the transfer.
The PA also owes Mekorot for much of its water, Bezeq for communications services, some of Israel's cellphone firms, many of the country's hospitals and numerous private Israeli suppliers and businessmen, who have little if any redress.
In 2002, Yasser Arafat ordered his banks not to honor any checks to Israelis as part of his economic war. While the government did deduct some debts for IEC, Bezeq and the health system, it refused to intervene on behalf of ordinary citizens.
IEC recently asked the Finance Ministry to read the proverbial riot act to the PA. Gaza City alone owes NIS 50m. for electricity. IEC insists that this anomaly cannot continue, having become a weighty liability for the corporation, while the very size of the debt makes repayment less likely, especially given the identity and nature of the PA's new powers-that-be.
A fraction of such arrears within Israel would automatically lead to power cutoffs. Were this to be done to the PA, a hue and cry is sure to ensue about the humanitarian hardship imposed.
Nevertheless, debts continue to be recklessly incurred by the PA, possibly under the impudent assumption that Israeli taxpayers are good for them.
If the PA pleads poverty, perhaps it should call on its Arab sponsors to either clear its debts or to supply its utilities. But the Hamas-dominated PA cannot continue to count on the very Israelis it wants to ethnically cleanse to keep footing its bills. The PA funds should be held up in any case, but rather than simply being held in escrow, they should also be used pay off the PA's many unpaid bills.
Expect a lot of suicide bombings in banks holding PA debt.
Most Palestinians don't pay their bills and the PA doesn't pay IEC. The bottom line is that IEC, in effect, supplies power for free, though this power - including fuel, equipment, manpower and services - is unquestionably expensive. At this juncture, the PA's debt to IEC alone is a whopping NIS 220 million - the highest ever.This is unbelievable. And unsustainable. And really depressing.
Israel has made this known, but MSM's agenda stopped the reporting.
Where everything including the logic is "ass on top".
The left has been a long time master of this technique in its battle with freedom.
What I do not understand, is why the PA demands tax rebates from Israel, when it is not a State, it is residing inside Israel. Once it is a State they would have perhaps have some reason to demand that they are free from Israel taxes inside their area, but to demand that they are free now, and not only that but demand that they pay NO Israeli taxes is unrealistic.
For example, they drive on Israeli roads, and should have to pay gasoline tax like everyone else when they buy gas at Israeli gas pumps. They presently demand a percentage of the taxes Israel collects at gas pumps in Israel, and demand to pay no taxes on gasoline sold in Palestine.
This is a perfect example of the heads I win tails you loose Muslim politics.
It is silly, Israel pays Israel with Israeli money and says the Palestinians have now paid for their gas, water, electric and phones.
Stupid. REAL Stupid.
Politicians do not care how they screw things up and screw their people over, as long as they get to hold the wallet.
They have billions in a Swiss bank under the name of Mrs. Araphat. Just get that back and they are all set.
I propose that Israel should take all the taxes and duties it collects for the Palestinians, buy bombs and missiles with it, and deliver it toute-suite to PA/Hamas headquarters via "air mail." Every Pallie government building is now a legitimate target for destruction.
I certainly hope that the US cuts Hamas off from every dime, and that we can lean on the Europeans to do the same.
-ccm
They have... plenty of times.
Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel.
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They'll seize the PA tax money pay the PA electrical bills, etc. but then what? The only way the Israeli's will have a legitimate reason to hold onto the money is if Hamas Does Not Recognize their right to exist (and they won't). The way I see it Israel is helping Hamas buy time to make the right decision.
Hey Hamas......it must be a b!tch to govern. Go ask the Taliban.
The key to this whole thing is demanding that Hamas acknowledge Israels right to exist.....BUT Hamas' charter states that they basically exist to remove the Israeli's from the face of the earth.
Here's Hamas' problem: If their charter says they exist to eliminate Israel....then to recognize Israels right to exist eliminates Hamas' right to exist. Hamas can not recognize Israel without loosing face/ machismo or whatever you want to call it in the Arab world.
All this equates to the West's right to pull it's money out of the process.
The EU said they will continue to send the money as long as Hamas commites to keeping the peace negotiations going (Insert here "recognize Israels right to exist" because the Israeli's are going to demand it too), Condi rice has alrealy demanded that Hamas recognize Israel too.........times running out, Hamas is going to lose the money and now the Arab brothers of the world will have come up with a way to feed another nation instead of just a few palestinian herding station within their own borders while paying their own people off to prevent unrest at home.
It seems to me that the money pot is emptying out without the West's help. And the Arabs will have to make up for roughly a billion dollars of Western welfare to the palestinians just to stay even. This whole situation is going to taint Hamas and their armor won't be a shiny as it was at first appearence to the Palestinians that voted them in......they can't survive without their welfare money.....Just wait and watch.
It's such a b!tch to govern.....Schadenfraude!
This doesn't even scratch the surface of the total absurdity that is the so called Palestinian problem.
History has been rewritten and the position of true victims reversed and a oppressed people created out of smoke and mirrors.
Those of us who have been watching this for the last forty or fifty years are truly stunned at the power of a good propaganda campaign.
It is the same with the water, food medical care housing Israel has once before and is being asked to again to supply them with the arms they need to kill them with.
Why don't people understand this whole thing with the refugees [Palestinians] was created not by Israel but but the Arabs and has been used as a propaganda weapon against Israel since 1948.
These Arabs do not have a government, they have never been self supporting but have existed totally on welfare of which this tiny speech of people get many times more dollars of aid from the world than any other country yet live in squalor.
Their government has never produced a single penny of money on their own nor will they, they are a propaganda tool a psychological weapon that is kept in existence by welfare of the western nations to appease the Arabs and hopefully keep the oil flowing.
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