lap of luxury

Let them eat falafel. It’s a lot of money. But Arafat had big bucks too. All this smoke signals and noises about statehood from the Palestinian Authority could just be hot air used as a pretext for money. Blackmail. Or, statehood will be the big Kahuna of money siphoning, the big enchilada of outright theft of citizen money. That Israel threatens to withhold tax revenue may just be part of this elaborate song and dance routine that is so well choreographed that the stand-ins and understudies have all the moves down and mastered all the poses and gestures. The amount of money here though seems almost unfathomable, but evidently there are those who may balk at the price to pay to keep things as they are, but in the end, the lucre is ponied up…

( see link at end) …The Foreign Ministry claimed that Abbas chose to take his bid to the UN now realizing he needs to improve his popularity among Palestinians in light of his perceived inability to handle domestic challenges, particularly the economic challenge.

The Palestinian president is also worried about the exposure of more corruption allegations against him. Since he became PA chairman, details about Abbas’ income and assets have been disclosed by opposition elements within Fatah.

—Revellers in a London winter warm themselves at daybreak by a fire, while snow gathers on the rooftops of Covent Garden. The molls and rakes who have been out all night embrace by lusty flames, while a churchgoer looks disdainfully on their ragged company. St Paul’s Church, built by Inigo Jones, contrasts in its sombre architecture with the sleazy street life.—Read More:http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/picture/2011/dec/07/morning-william-hogarth-wintry-art

According to the paper, Abbas earns $1 million a month. US President Barack Obama’s annual salary, in comparison, stands at $400,000. The paper also quoted data published by the Inlight Press website according to which Abbas holds several Jordanian accounts of more than $500 million, mostly Palestinian tax payer money.

“The accounts are not under any national or international scrutiny,” the paper said. “Recently, Abbas urged Moscow to supply him with a new advanced presidential jet worth $55 million despite the fact that he has a new Global Express speed jet bought for $53 million at his disposal. In addition he also uses a 504 Challenger jet.”

The paper further noted that the Foreign Ministry is slated to release a report for donor states which shows that Abbas’ personal expenses in the past eight years have exceeded $1 billion. It was also claimed that PA sources said that the president owns many lands.

—artist:
William Hogarth
agency:
Bridgeman Art Library
The Four Times of Day: Noon – description:
1736 Private Collection—Read More:http://www.posterlounge.co.uk/the-four-times-of-day-noon-pr153644.html

The paper claims that Abbas’ sons are given a share of all Palestinian Authorities projects, based on information from the Inlight Press website.

“This explains why Abu Mazen tried to promote a Dead Sea tourism project funded by Gulf states. It is claimed that his sons won contracts for more than $250 million.”

The website had apparently revealed that Abbas had prepared a plan to flee the Palestinian Authority toJordan more than a year ago. He is said to have properties in the country where antiques worth more tha

00,000 euros and paid for by “The Palestinian people’s Fund” are kept.

Palestinian Ambassador to Belgrade Mohammed Nabhan claimed that they were purchased on the black market.

The Foreign Ministry believes these reports are credible and had relayed the information to the US State Department.

Israeli sources claimed that the CIA is now reviewing the data. “As far as the donor states are concerned the most serious issue is that large sums of money meant to aid needy Palestinians were stolen and transferred to an investment fund run by Abu Mazen’s associate Mohammed Mustafa,” the paper said.

The document further suggested that Abbas and his staff are worried that the Palestinian issue is no longer part of the Israeli discourse.

“They are aware that the lack of interest is derived from the deep mistrust towards Abu Mazen.”

The Foreign Ministry claimed that the fact that Abbas continues to postpone the presidential and parliamentary elections which were meant to take place in 2010 “indicates that there is no assurance that any Palestinian administration will see itself bound to the agreements with Israel.” Read More:http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4305124,00.html

This entry was posted in Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion and tagged , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>