Saudi Arabia to grant $100m to Palestinians

[oberliner]

Saudi Arabia will give the Palestinian government in the Israeli-occupied West Bank $100m to help alleviate a worsening budget crisis, the Palestinian president's office has said.

"The state's budget is facing a large deficit as a result of the docking of Palestinian money by the Israeli government as a punitive step after the UN recognition of Palestine as an observer state," Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said in a statement on Thursday.

Abbas has struggled to convince Arab countries to deliver a $100m monthly "safety net" they promised when he secured de facto UN recognition of a Palestinian state in November, prompting Israeli sanctions.

The Ramallah-based Palestinian government has been hard-pressed to pay more than $300m in monthly expenditures since Israel announced it would confiscate $100m it collects in customs taxes on their behalf each month.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2013/01/201311764936719632.html

Three cheers for the benevolent House of Saud!

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

1. I love the last line of the posted article.

The Ramallah-based Palestinian government has been hard-pressed to pay more than $300m in monthly expenditures since Israel announced it would confiscate $100m it collects in customs taxes on their behalf each month.

[oberliner]

2. Al-Jazeera always loves to put in spin like that

Never fails. Of course, the truth is far from what their coded languages implies, but that's sort of their claim to fame.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

4. Are you saying that what you posted was a lie?

[geek tragedy]

3. Yeah, let the Palestinians starve!

In the meantime, the $3 billion in weapons we give Israel EVERY year is the height of money well spent.

[oberliner]

6. No Palestinians are starving

Weird that you would suggest otherwise.

And almost of all the money the US sends to Israel goes back into the US economy since it is spent primarily on US-made military products.

[shira]

5. Abbas has to pay Hamas and other terrorists in jail. Better to use Saudi money...

...for that than American taxpayer money.