I see that politics stink there as well as here. Money sent from Germany and Austria for Holocaust survivors should go to Holocaust survivors. What part of that can't politicians understand?
Exactly. And the fact that politicians have to basically be paid off to keep the government steady stinks more than simple misappropriation of money. Call me an idealist, but these are the people elected to govern the nation, pocketing half of the nation's budget that should be going to these survivors, defense, education or any number of places while taxes are sky high. I mean, American politics has its pitfalls, but the system doesn't allow for half of the national budget to be more or less handed to the politicians on a silver platter.
Holocaust reparations given to Israel by Germany were never intended to be used for individual survivors. They were to be used to support the State of Israel which was created as a save haven for Jews the world over.
"an agreement was signed in September of that year, and West Germany paid Israel a sum of 3 billion marks over the next fourteen years; 450 million marks were paid to the World Jewish Congress. The payments were made to the State of Israel as the heir to those victims who had no surviving family. The money was invested in the country's infrastructure and played an important role in establishing the economy of the new state."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reparations_Agreement_between_Israel_and_West_Germany