Where the Palestinian Money is Really Going A.K.A. "What A Job"

A good deal of noise is being made now about how badly the Hamas run Palestinian Authority needs money. Jimmy Carter wrote an editorial accusing anyone who favors not funding terrorists, of treating the Palestinians like 'animals.' The 'Send Money to Hamas' crowd points to the money as providing aid to the needy and sustaining the Palestinian people, whom we are told are in danger of starving and dying within minutes.

But where is the money really going. An AP story cites the following data.

"The cutoff has left the Palestinian government virtually broke and increasingly unable to provide basic services. Some 165,000 government workers, whose incomes had supported one-third of Palestinian families, have not been paid for the past two months."

Since the Palestinian government was never providing much in the way of services to begin with, actual services like electricity and water all coming from the Israeli side, the real issue is the 165,000 government workers. But why does the PA which has little in the way of an infrastructure need 165,000 government workers?

Even the largest estimates of the Palestinian population clock in at around 3 million. That's one government worker per 18 Palestinians.

42.9 percent or 1.06 million of the overall population is under 14 and so wouldn't hold down government jobs either. An additional 73,000 is over 65. Of the remainder in the 15-64 year category 676,427 are male and 644,347 female. The female half can be eliminated as women generally don't hold down jobs in the PA.

That means the actual ratio of Palestinian adult men is 676,427 to government workers at 165,000. In other words every 1 in 4 or 25 percent of Palestinian men would be government employees. On wages subsidized by America and Europe.

Of course there's nothing for the 165,000 to do. When we eliminate the terrorists on the Palestinian payroll masquerading as police, that still leaves a hundred thousand or so, some of whom recieve patronage payments and many of whom are likely fictious names whose 'salaries' are forwarded to overseas bank accounts by the Palestinian leadership. In its time that was Yasir Arafat and his cronies. Today it's Hamas.

This is the crisis that we are told needs to be met by immediately providing money to the Palestinian Authority. If these figures are accurate then the US has essentially been paying to provide do-nothing jobs to 1 in every 4 Palestinians. At best. At worst much of this money has been going to fund terrorism and private fortunes.

And this of course is the emergency we are told we must immediately cough up the cash for. Or else.