IDF: Yasser Arafat's personal assets worth $1.3 billion

Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat has personal assets estimated at a value of $1.3 billion, IDF Intelligence Chief Major General Aharon Ze'evi (Farakash) said Tuesday.

Speaking Tuesday before the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Ze'evi said that Arafat is isolated and criticism of the long-time Palestinian leader is growing - both within Palestinian society and Arafat's own Fatah movement. He said dissatisfaction with Arafat is being expressed in mass demonstrations in Gaza, Jenin and Tubas; newspapers; as well as a phenomenon of smashing photographs of Arafat. Even close associates of the Palestinian leader are distancing themselves, and some are even threatening not to support him if they are not made part of the decision-making process. While Arafat is making every effort to maintain control, he is still the man who "pulls the strings" in the PA, Ze'evi added.

Ze'evi said that the Palestinian Authority is capable of fighting terror, but Yasser Arafat is not interested in doing so, and he still believes in his power to bring about an and to the conflict with Israel. Ze'evi pointed out that Palestinian terror organizations are making every effort to carry out attacks, including large-scale ones such as several simultaneous suicide attacks, the explosion of several car bombs at a specific hour, or a bomb that has a very large amount of explosives.

Call in Fatah growing to halt suicide attacks
Voices in Fatah calling for an end to suicide attacks inside Israel are growing stronger, and Israel's policy of house demolitions and deportations is beginning to have a deterrent impact, Ze'evi also told the Knesset members attending Tuesday's committee meeting.

Ze'evi said that the calls for an end to suicide attacks were coming from mid-level Fatah members in the street, and that they claimed that the attacks were harmful to the Palestinians.

According to Ze'evi, members of Tanzim, the Fatah military wing, are debating whether to continue the suicide attacks, but the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades refuses any halt and is taking the Hamas position calling for continuing attacks inside Israel as well as in the territories.

Committee Chairman MK Haim Ramon called for encouraging those Palestinians calling for an end to the attacks.

The intelligence chief said that at least five terror attacks were recently prevented as a result of pressure by relatives, who feared expulsion to Gaza or demolition of their homes, on family members planning to carry out suicide attacks, Army Radio reported. Ze'evi added that the security services currently have warnings of six planned terror attacks and continued preparations for a "mega-terror" attack.

Hamas, Islamic Jihad: attacks inside Israel to continue
Senior Hamas and Islamic Jihad officials said Tuesday that the militant organizations would continue to carry out attacks inside Israel, while a senior official from Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement said that his group would halt all such military operations.

Senior Fatah official Hussein Al Sheikh said that the movement has decided to halt all attacks inside Israel and that he said that he expects the movement's military wing, the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, to follow suit, despite a leaflet it released to the contrary, Israel Radio reported.

"It is not part of Fatah's strategy to harm innocent people and to carry out attacks inside Israel," he said. "Our strategy is to set up a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip... on conquered lands."

Al Sheikh's comments came as the Hamas leadership in the Gaza Strip continued to discuss the draft paper that was drawn up by representatives of all the Palestinian political organizations, including Hamas members, which hints at a rejection of terror attacks inside Israel proper.

But Hamas leaders were making it increasingly clear Tuesday that they would not accept a cessation of attacks inside Israel. Ismail Abu-Shanab, a Hamas leader in Gaza, was quoted by the radio as saying that his movement would continue to strike inside Israel.

A senior Islamic Jihad official also said Tuesday that the militant organization would not halt attacks inside Israel. "We will continue to oppose the occupation, even if an agreement is reached on the document currently being discussed with the PA," he said.

Representatives of the Palestine Liberation Organization factions who participated in drafting the paper were still hoping Monday that the Hamas leadership would eventually decide to add its signature to what has been described as a national memorandum determining national objectives and courses of action against the Israeli occupation that would be acceptable to all political groups in the territories.

According to statements by Hamas activists, it appears that the organization's leadership will not sign the document, which defines the national objective as the establishment of a state in all the areas occupied in 1967 and leaves the right to determine the means of combating the occupation in the hands of a collective national leadership still to be established.

Hamas sources said that they had many reservations about the document, despite the fact that Abu-Shanab participated in its formulation. The sources said that Hamas was not happy with the 1967 lines being the borders of a Palestinian state, with the negation of military activities inside Israel, and with the hint that political negotiations with Israel would continue.

According to Ismail Haniya, a close confidant of Hamas's spiritual leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, "There is much common ground between Hamas and the other organizations, and the intifada has reinforced this; but we are studying [the document] so as to strengthen the common points."

Haniya explicitly said, however, that Hamas supported "the establishment of a Palestinian state on all parts of the land of Palestine, without forgoing the rest and without recognizing the state of the Zionist entity."

The representatives of the various political organizations were slated Tuesday to declare their acceptance of the document, but it appears now, in light of the Hamas position, that the groups will choose to continue their talks rather than declare them a failure.

Sources in Gaza said that the Hamas leadership outside of the Strip, together with a number of the organization's more hardline leaders in Gaza, was pushing for a rejection of the document.

Hackers uncover secret billions of Arafat's PLO

London Sunday Telegraph, December 5, 1999
By Tom Gross in Jerusalem

Was Congress aware of the following London Sunday Telegraph data, while appropriating $400 million foreign aid to the PLO, in addition to the $500 million already transferred to the PLO?! Should Congress tolerate the transfer of the $400 million to the PLO before the GAO establishes transparency of PLO accounts, including Arafat's own bank accounts?!

Just like the most corrupt rulers in the Third World, so does Arafat plunder his own people, while expanding his own personal financial holdings. Shouldn't Congress MANDATE that foreign aid to the PLO be withheld until the GAO audit is concluded, including Arafat's personal bank account?!!!

THE Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has salted away billions of pounds for the Palestinian Liberation Organisation in secret foreign bank accounts and investments, including property in London.

The disclosure about the hidden wealth of his PLO comes amid deepening economic hardship in his Gaza and West Bank fiefdoms. It will also hamper his efforts to woo a huge influx of European aid for his fledgling Palestinian regime.

The timing of the disclosures could not have been more embarrassing as Mr Arafat, seated before a stage built to resemble a giant Christmas crib, yesterday opened Millennium celebrations in Bethlehem. He hopes that the year of festivities in Jesus's birthplace will showcase his push for an independent Palestinian state.

New details of the vast PLO fortune he controls have come to light following a series of computer break-ins at the headquarters of the Palestine Liberation Organisation in Tunis.

The hackers discovered that the PLO maintains about £5 billion in numbered bank accounts in Zurich, Geneva and New York. It also holds accounts with smaller sums in north Africa, Europe and Asia. They are not registered in the PLO's name, but in the names of private individuals.
The records also showed that the PLO owns shares on the Frankfurt, Paris and Tokyo stock exchanges, including stock in the German car giant Mercedes Benz, and property in prestigious areas of European capitals, including Mayfair in London.

The organisation, which once specialised in aircraft hijackings, also has shares in several airlines, including the national carriers of the Maldives and Guinea Bissau. The computer security breach is believed on the West Bank to have been carried out by PLO officials disgruntled with Mr Arafat's leadership. "They wished to dispel the smokescreen created around the PLO's finances," a Palestinian official told The Telegraph.

Mr Arafat has always refused to comment on reports about the foreign bank accounts. But the disclosures caused anger in poverty-stricken Gaza. One embittered Palestinian said:
"Why is he sitting on a mountain of gold, while there is a desperate lack of jobs and medical supplies here?"

Mr Arafat is both president of the Palestinian Authority, the semi-autonomous organisation that governs parts of Gaza and the West Bank, and the chairman of the PLO, which maintains its headquarters in Tunis, its base during its terrorist heyday.

The creation of the Palestinian Authority, the embryonic government for a future Palestinian state, was supposed to lead to the winding-up of the PLO - and make the Palestinian leadership accountable and law-abiding. But the authority has in fact been repeatedly accused by domestic opponents of rampant corruption and mismanagement.

The web of secret bank accounts and assets held around the world is believed to be so complex that only Mr Arafat himself and two of his most trusted aides know the overall picture. Much of the money is the result of "taxes" levied on Palestinians working in Kuwait and other Gulf states in the Seventies and Eighties, and of donations from wealthy states such as Saudi Arabia.

The assets are controlled by Mr Arafat himself and it is not known what would happen to them if the 70-year-old, who is said to be suffering from Parkinson's disease, should die. An Israeli intelligence analyst said:

"These revelations are almost certainly not the whole story. No one can know the full extent of the PLO's assets. They are so well hidden."

The disclosures are also likely to prompt international donors, including the European Union countries, to ask why Mr Arafat is still demanding aid for his Palestinian authority. Nor will they have been impressed by his decision to invite Slobodan Milosevic, Yugoslavia's president, to Bethlehem.

Notice the date on this article, 1999. Who was president?

The PLO no longer receives this money from us. From the Euro trash countries, yes!

Go to this link to see how Arafat has devastated the economy and personal wealth of the average PA, while he and his Islamakazi Cronies become billionaires: (link to Arafat's economic destruction of the PA's)

It is true that per-capita income in the PA has dropped from US$2,000 to US$1,400 and that unemployment has quadrupled from 11% to 45%. However, this depressing slide started months before Ariel Sharon's government imposed travel and financial restrictions on the PA. It began in earnest last summer, when the PA initiated the intifada after Mr. Arafat decided he could gain more through violence than painstaking negotiation.

The endemic corruption of the Arafat regime -- evidence of which even the PA-controlled press cannot hide any longer -- is also greatly to blame. Only two weeks ago, the European Union announced it would "closely monitor" funds it transfers to the PA so that they do not disappear. Even the Arab countries are opting not to give money directly to Mr. Arafat, but instead prefer to establish projects under their own supervision. Mr. Arafat's personal wealth, accumulated by shifting donations to the PLO into his private bank accounts, is estimated to be worth billions of dollars.

Given these circumstances, it would make sense for the Palestinians to call off the intifada and return to the negotiating table. But that is not what Mr. Arafat and his advisors want. In fact, Mr. Arafat prefers keeping his fiefdom poor and rowdy to gain international sympathy. In an op-ed piece published earlier this month, Natan Sharansky, the Deputy Prime Minister of Israel, made this point clear. "As minister of industry and trade during Benjamin Netanyahu's administration," he wrote, "I saw Mr. Arafat reject countless projects that would have bettered the lot of his own people simply because they would have served to decrease tensions between Israelis and Palestinians. He continually spurned my efforts to help the Palestinian Authority establish an industrial park in Gaza that would have encouraged investment in Palestinian areas, created tens of thousands of jobs, and alleviated poverty. Similarly, he rejected a proposal to create joint ventures in the West Bank in existing industrial zones that would have fostered co-operation between Jews and Arabs and generously redistributed municipal tax revenues to depressed Palestinian areas." ===========================================================

Arafat and Je$$e Jack$on and Al $harpton are the same creatures, who feed off of their poor brethren while working 24/7 to keep them poor. That way they can skim off the dollars that come in to "help" the down trodden. Only the down trodden never get any money.

Time to kill Arafat and all of his chronies, then divide up that money to pay back to Israel the damages done. Then take the rest to help the good PA's to start a new life without the Islamakazis destroying their economic lives.

The left wing mediots of America and the World, like the NY Slimes, are responsible for spiking the truth about Arafat and trying to blame the problem on the Israelis. They are more guilty than Arafat and his chronies in spiking and hiding the reality of Arafat.

How much blood money has flowed into the pockets of the left wing mediots in America the past 2 decades from the Islamakazis?

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