THE SAXTON SOLUTION: NO P.L.O. COMPLIANCE, NO U.S. TAXPAYER-UNDERWRITTEN AID

(Washington, D.C.): This evening, the U.S. House of
Representatives is expected to debate an amendment of stunning
simplicity yet enormous importance: Rep. Jim Saxton (R-NJ) will
ask his colleagues to vote to end the practice of sending
millions of American taxpayer dollars to the Palestine Liberation
Organization — and/or the Palestinian Authority (PA) it runs in
Gaza and Jericho. The reason: The PLO’s continuing failure to
live up to formal obligations assumed pursuant to the Declaration
of Principles (DOP) signed with Israel in September 1993 and
subsequent agreements.

Compliance with such obligations was made an explicit
condition of the Middle East Peace Facilitation Act (MEPFA),
legislation adopted after the DOP was signed in order to set
aside myriad prohibitions against U.S. government funding or
other interactions with terrorist organizations like the PLO. In
the expectation that the PLO would, among other things, handle
international aid responsibly, disarm or at least decry
terrorists operating against Israel and formally and in fact
abandon the stated goal of its Covenant — i.e., the destruction
of the State of Israel — the Clinton Administration pledged to
give the PLO half-a-billion dollars.

Regrettably, the PLO/PA has not lived up to its commitments.
To the contrary, as documented in numerous publications of the
Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), Yasser Arafat’s
organizations have systematically breached formal undertakings
not only to Israel but to the United States and various other
international donors. Indeed, the ZOA’s ongoing monitoring has
provided a far more critical and accurate portrait of PLO/PA
behavior than have successive reports issued by the State
Department (see attached). State’s
reports have, by and large, amounted to what House International
Relations Committee Chairman Benjamin Gilman (R-NY) has called a
“whitewash” — either ignoring or trying to excuse
unacceptable behavior on the part of Yasser Arafat and his
minions.

Arafat’s Rip-Off Operation

Among the most blatant PLO/PA violations appear to involve
the routine diversion of U.S. and other foreign aid to enrich
Arafat and his cronies personally and otherwise to promote his
dubious agenda. According to an analysis prepared by Rep.
Saxton’s office, “Arafat personally directs and
oversees the gross violations of the series of international
agreements and understandings between the PA and the various
donor states.”

“Arafat personally ordered what amounts to subversion
of the international financial assistance already donated by,
among others, the United States in order to expedite the
peace process and improve the lot of the population in the
Gaza Strip. Most of the money donated was actually used to
further Arafat’s political and strategic goals beyond the
confines of Gaza and Jericho. Among the programs that foreign
aid money was clandestinely and illegally diverted to are
campaigns to subvert the sovereignty of, and parliamentary
process in, Israel; clandestine acquisition of property in
Jerusalem; and naturally, a wide [array] of programs
optimized to bribe Arafat’s cronies and coterie.”

Rep. Saxton’s findings are borne out by a recent article by
an Israeli journalist, Nadav Haetzni, in the pages of Ma’ariv Weekend
Magazine. Under the headline “Gaza on the Edge of
Bankruptcy,” Haetzni wrote (in part) on 5 May 1995:

“The donor nations wanted their money to go to
projects to establish infrastructure and create jobs in Gaza,
but Yasser Arafat thought differently. He wanted the
money to establish a large army, twice as large as what had
been agreed upon; to establish a huge bureaucracy; and to
control large amounts of “petty cash” to enable him
to buy his way out of any future political threats.

“Most of the funds that do come in from donor
nations never reach their expected destinations. Most of
the money goes to strengthen Arafat’s bureaucracy–to pay
18,000 soldiers and 28,000 employees of the Palestinian
Authority. Parallel to this, millions flow to pay for
luxuries, into private pockets and a thousand different
hands.

“In jobs where skills are required, former prisoners
from Arafat’s Fatah organization are appointed–their
affiliation being their sole credential for the job. At the
same time, university graduates are sitting at home. Every
office in Gaza is filled with many times the number of
officials needed for each position. The result? Nothing gets
done.

“In Gaza, the people in the street don’t stop
talking about the huge profits flowing from the failing
Palestinian economy into the pockets of the top functionaries
of the Authority. One of the best-known stories involves
the recent contract with the Marriott corporation to build a
hotel in Gaza for $65-million. Two million dollars, it is
claimed, went straight into the pockets of the heads of the
project and to Arafat’s private funds. Arafat himself,
together with his top officials–claim his critics–take
their cut from every contract that is signed, from the
purchase of cement, to computers, to telephones.”
(Emphasis added.)

The Bottom Line

The Center for Security Policy believes that no peace process
worthy of the name can withstand the persistent violation of
obligations assumed by one of its parties. Continuing U.S. aid to
the Palestine Liberation Organization and/or the Palestinian
Authority under such circumstances amounts to rewarding those who
fail to honor freely assumed responsibilities, debasing the value
of the accords signed with the PLO and encouraging others to
believe that their agreements — whether extant or prospective —
with Israel can be selectively observed, as well.

The Center believes that the Saxton amendment cutting off
U.S. aid to the PLO/PA is, under present circumstances, warranted
and desirable. If adopted, it would establish that there are
real costs for non-compliance with solemn international
commitments. It would give Arafat and company an incentive to
begin to behave in a manner consistent with the requirements of
the DOP and other bilateral accords with Israel. And it will
ensure that no further American taxpayer dollars can be diverted
by the PLO to support purposes inconsistent with that accord —
or the larger interests of a real and durable Mideast peace.