Fuelling a failed enterprise

Investors and entrepreneurs before contemplating their support for a new venture usually, if they are at all prudent, make sure that it is likely to succeed…writes Michael Kuttner.

Research into a proposed enterprise entails financial, economic and even political research. If at the end of this extensive exercise it is proven that the investment is not likely to be viable and in fact may “go under” within a reasonably short period of time, support will be withdrawn. It is only the rashest or the most gullible who would be tempted to throw scarce resources down a bottomless pit. Anything which points to failure is hardly likely to attract capital especially if all the signs indicate a disastrous prognosis.

It is therefore astounding and beyond the realm of any sort of logic that there still should be those who support, fund and advocate the establishment of yet another Arab Palestinian State.

Past and current events all lead to one conclusion, yet the blind obsession displayed by those advocates of what is already a failed enterprise is unparalleled. Taxpayers’ money from many countries has been and continues to flow into the corrupt coffers of a kleptomaniac enterprise more intent on denying Jewish rights than in establishing a liberal democracy and improving the lives of its own citizens.

For over seventy years Arabs have had endless opportunities to establish their State but as we all know have rejected the idea because their first priority has always been the destruction of the Jewish State. After failing to physically destroy Israel on successive occasions they were thrown a lifeline. In an act of unmitigated folly our own leaders invited Arafat and his gang of cronies back from exile in Tunisia and helped create the Palestinian Authority. Not only did this lay the ground for future terror but it also created a hitherto non-existent nation complete with historical myths. This has been swallowed hook line and sinker by not only a hypocritical UN but also by many Diaspora Jews and Israelis alike.

One would have imagined that over this period of time, if Arab claims were to be believed, a structure would have been put in place to demonstrate an eagerness for independence.

Following the Jewish example in the early days of the State the foreign aid which has been pouring into the bottomless coffers of the PA should have been utilized to establish permanent housing for refugees, build hospitals and schools, improve the social welfare condition of citizens and generally prepare all those institutions necessary for efficient governance. Alongside this infrastructure, steps should have been undertaken to promote peace education, tolerance, human rights and an environment of good will. By now a nascent Arab State would have used the massive international aid to create a thriving economy which in turn would have generated improved living conditions.

Instead of this occurring we witness the exact opposite. Refugees still wallow in deliberately induced misery, sustained by lies, victimhood and permanent homelessness thanks to UNRWA and donor nations who continue to fund a hopelessly failed enterprise. The situation however is even more dire because of the toxic results of totally dysfunctional and corrupt policies. Decades of delegitimization against any valid Jewish presence has meant that the current population and the next generation will never be prepared to accept anything other than a cleansed Jewish environment.

Not one day goes by when the PA via its officials and media does not spout the most outrageous libelous nonsense, safe in the knowledge that nobody at the UN cares a hoot. This week’s examples are just the tip of the iceberg:

The deputy leader of the Islamic Movement in Israel accused Israel of placing dangerous chemicals in the Al Aqsa Mosque. Not to be outdone the former Grand Mufti of Jerusalem claims that Israel planted spying equipment in the Mosque. The official news agency of the PA meanwhile denies the existence of the Temple and attacks Jews who “desecrate the sanctity of the Al Aqsa Mosque by coming to the Western Wall plaza” on the anniversary of the Temples’ destruction.

As reported by PMW : PA Minister of Religious Affairs: Israel “plans to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque and establish the alleged Temple in its place”

PA Ministry of Foreign Affairs in official statement: Israeli PM Netanyahu’s plan is “to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque and build the alleged Temple”

Fatah youth movement encourages more conflict, calls for “widening confrontations with the occupation”; if Jerusalem is “harmed,” “it means opening the gates of hell before the occupiers”

PA and Fatah emphasize need for Palestinian “defence” of “Arab and Islamic Jerusalem” 

PA government “demands Islamic nation notice real danger for Al-Aqsa Mosque, [which] obligates Muslims throughout the world to act”

All these slanders are naturally internalized by the Arab public and then in turn generate a further momentum of hate.

As if this is not bad enough the latest scandal of increased funding of terrorists and their families has hit the headlines here. According to a report published by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs the 2017 budget for the PA makes revealing reading:

Expected funds from donors = US$693 million

Allocation of payments to jailed terrorists

and their families = US$345 million

According to the 2017 budget, the total number of “martyrs’ families” and families with injured members to receive payments is 21,500. In 2016 that number was 19,000.  In accordance with PA law, the payments are updated according to the price of living index.

In addition to the expected donations above, extra millions received by UNRWA and various other Palestinian Arab NGO’s brings the total amount pouring into their bottomless coffers to US$2.8 billion.

Apart from rewarding terror, what has been achieved with all this money donated by the international community? Instead of improving lives and providing the trappings of a modern liberal democracy ready to take its place in the civilized world, we have instead a miserable failed enterprise which has no chance whatsoever of ever succeeding.

One therefore needs to ask why every man and his dog continue to support such a failed venture. What is it that unites China, Jeremy Corbyn and Bob Carr plus others in a crusade to create a country which not only never existed but has no prospect of ever making a go of it? Pouring millions of taxpayers’ money into a manifestly unsound venture is pure madness yet this is what we face today.

Level headed investors would never have anything to do with this.

There must be something else at play here and it definitely is not concern for the plight of those currently exploited by their own leadership.

Michael Kuttner is a Jewish New Zealander who for many years was actively involved with various communal organisations connected to Judaism and Israel. He now lives in Israel and is J-Wire’s correspondent in the region.

Fuelling a failed enterprise