Maybe you shouldn't blame them. After all, Condoleezza Rice raised
$14 million from American Jewish zillionaires to buy the hothouses in
Gaza for the Palestinians and within months they were gone. Now,
she is passing the pushka among the states of the Arab League to
aid the Palestinian Authority. Rice is not asking for
pledges. She already has those, and has had them for nearly a
year. In fact, she has pledges of $717.1 million from League
members. But she only has $153.2 million in cash, all of it from
Saudi Arabia, Algeria and the United Arab Emirates which include deep,
deep pockets Dubai and Abu Dhabi. No one else has given a
farthing. Or a dirham. Or even a fig.The U.A.E. has the fifth
largest GDP in the world and the third largest among the Arabs, after
Qatar and Kuwait which...well, they are busy counting their oil revenues
and can't be bothered with the Palestinians.
This is no joke. They care about the Palestinians only at the
United Nations. They give less to the Palestinians than the United
Jewish Appeal does to Israel.
The western countries are also a bit shy about fulfilling their pledges
to the P.A. But they -- the E.U. the U.S., Great Britain, Norway,
France -- have already delivered a half billion dollars, leaving some $300
million yet to be deposited.
What about Russia and China? Are you kidding?