Dem Joos force EU to waste taxes on Palestinians

Dear Friends,

 

A European Commission technical assistant has created a storm by making political statements about Israel’s settlements in the West Bank, blaming Israel for the waste of European Taxpayer’s money.  Al-Jazeera (amongst others) reports the unnamed official as saying “[I]t is the European taxpayers who pay most of the price of this dependence, including US 280 million dollars so far this year, because settlements prevent the PA from functioning normally.”

 

This Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs has put the clerk in his place with a well worded rebuke, delivered to the head of the EU delegation in Israel.  They not only point out what utter nonsense the man uttered, that he has no place taking a political stand, that his legal assumptions are way off base, that the economic assumptions are out of line with the facts on the ground, that in fact the West Bank economy has improving – even at a time when the rest of the world economies are shrinking - and that the politics that obviously drives him to speak out are not in synch with European or even Palestinian interests.

 

What the Israeli government did not say is something that has been shouted out by many independent critics for years – that the EU and many European governments have DELIBERATELY AND KNOWINGLY CHOSEN to throw money at the Palestinian cause, knowing full well that it is wasted – being diverted to support violence and corruption.  And every time a new report scratches away the thin veneer of respectability pasted on this blatant waste of public funds, European officials find another layer to patch it over.

 

This time, however, the old canard of “it’s all the Joos fault” simply reeks of base anti-Semitism.

 

If it is of any relevance, the Funding for Peace Coalition website or the website of the Taxpayers Alliance or my own archive will give you plenty of background about the known waste of international donations to the Palestinian cause.

 

David

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