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Politics : Moderate Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TigerPaw who wrote (19588)	9/21/2005 12:09:48 PM
From: E. T.	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 20773

The September Atlantic has a great cover story and I wish I could post it here, perhaps someone with a subscription could do an online cut and paste... In any case, it's titled "How Arafat Destroyed Palestine: The legacy one Man's corrupt personal rule -- Through the eyes of those who knew him best" by David Samuels. So, as you, that "'apart from various settlements', That is a big part." Indeed, you are correct, but god, I doubt there was ever a chance for peace while Arafat ruled. Pick up the magazine if you can, a lengthy, but great read. So many things I had no idea about.... For instance, did you know that an Israel bank managed quite a bit of Arafat's graft, 100s of millions of dollars, in fact...

To: TigerPaw who wrote (19588)	9/21/2005 12:12:07 PM
From: E. T.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 20773

Here's an exerpt: The amounts of money stolen from the Palestinian people through the corrupt practices of Arafat’s inner circle are so staggeringly large that they may exceed one half of the total of $7 billion in foreign aid contributed to the Palestinian Authority. The biggest thief was Arafat himself. The International Monetary Fund has conservatively estimated that from 1995 to 2000 Arafat diverted $900 million from Palestinian Authority coffers, an amount that did not include the money that he and his family siphoned off through such secondary means as no-bid contracts, kickbacks, and rake-offs. A secret report … concluded that in 1996 alone, $326 million, or 43 percent of the state budget, had been embezzled, and that another $94 million, or 12.5 percent of the budget went to the president’s office, where it was spent at Arafat’s personal discretion. An additional 35 percent of the budget went to pay for the security services, leaving a total of $73 million, or 9.5 percent of the budget, to be spent on the needs of the population of the West Bank and Gaza.