27-May-15: The cheque for Gaza is in the mail, or whatever

The headline from Aljazeera's coverage of
the October 2014 donor conference in Cairo posed a question
to which we now have the answer [Image Source]

Money, who has it and who does not, along with the corruption that accompanies it, and the frequent silliness of those providing it, play a key role in the terrorism that has long been at the heart of the Arab/Israel conflict.

Exactly half a year ago, we wrote ["23-Nov-14: Gaza's wealth and where it is - and is not - going"] that Hamas had emerged as the world's second wealthiest terror organization; its annual income is on the order of a billion US dollars. 

Along with the wealth controlled by the organization itself, its kleptocratic, blood-stained leadership [details here: "27-Jul-14: Gaza's death toll keeps rising but for Hamas insiders it's all worth it"] has made out like thieves - in particular Mousa Abu Marzouk and Khaled Mashaal who despite their lowly origins are generally reckoned today to be personal billionaires. As we said last November, invoking one of the world's wealthiest despots, Arafat would have admired their cynical brazenness.

An  International Donor Conference convened in Cairo on October 12, 2014 to tap into the willingness of Gaza's (and Hamas') friends to fund a full recovery. As the BBC reported back then ["Gaza reconstruction facing obstacles despite aid"], the fund-raiser was an incredible success. The organizers had hoped to raise $4 billion, but ended with pledges to Gaza of an incredible $5.4 billion, 

a powerful signal that help was at hand... [A]bout half has been earmarked for the direct repair of war-damage - the reconstruction of buildings, roads, electricity supply lines and sewerage systems. It is not immediately clear how the rest of the money will be spent - but Gaza has no shortage of needs.

Whether clear or not, the Donor Conference website took a shot, so to speak, at clarifying the goals of the money-raising effort which were

to strengthen the basis of the ceasefire and improving political solution prospects for the conflict through (i) Strengthening the Palestinian government's ability to assume its responsibility in the rehabilitation of Gaza Strip. (ii) Enhancing the existing UN mechanism for import and export of goods and materials to and from Gaza. (iii) Providing the financial support required for reconstructing Gaza Strip.

Worthy ambitions. And you have to take your hat off in recognition of the donors' selfless generosity. Some of them may be astronomically wealthy but let's give credit where it's due: they really wanted to help. Their fraternal ties to the Arabs of the Gaza Strip provided a powerful incentive to do the right thing. As we noted, major pledges of funding came from Qatar ($1bn). Saudi Arabia ($500m), Turkey ($200m), United Arab Emirates ($200m), the European Union ($568m), the United States ($212m) and the United Kingdom ($32m).

Now it's six months later, and here's what we know. It comes from IRIN, an agency that used to be part of the United Nations, and is now an independent provider of 

unique, authoritative and independent reporting from the frontlines of crises to inspire and mobilise a more effective humanitarian response.

In a report datelined May 22, 2015, it updates us on what happened to all that Gaza-bound generosity.

As of late April, donors had given only 27.5 percent of the promised $3.5 billion, or $967 million... Gulf Arab states and Turkey have spectacularly failed to fulfill their pledges to Gaza...  Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Kuwait between them have handed over just over $50 million of the $900 million they pledged, according to a new World Bank report... IRIN asked Saudi Arabian, Qatari and Kuwaiti representatives for comment, but had not received responses by the time of publication... The release of the World Bank’s numbers comes a month after UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestine refugees, said that not a single one of the more than 5,000 completely destroyed homes in Gaza had been rebuilt...  [IRIN, May 22, 2015]

Qatar is spending tens of billions of dollars on getting ready to host the 2022 FIFA soccer World Cup. Of the $1 billion it pledged to its Gazan brothers, it has delivered 10 percent. The Saudi Arabians have produced just one-tenth of the $500 million they promised. Turkey pledged $200 million and has sent $520,000. Kuwait, not to be outdone, also pledged $200 million - and has not sent a penny.

Such vast failure; such trivial media coverage [Image Source]

The unimaginably rich United Arab Emirates said it was giving $200 million; the World Bank says it has no data for how much arrived. But the United States which pledged $277 million has handed over 84% of that. The European Union promised $348 million, and 40% has shown up so far which, compared with the Arabs, is not too shabby.

(Essentially the same thing happened when the previous Gaza donor conference took place in 2009. See "10-Aug-14: Only a fraction of the Gaza reconstruction cash arrived last time, says Hamas insider".)

This might be a good time to remind ourselves of who does, and who does not, fund the world's strangest refugee organization, UNRWA: see "20-Nov-13: It's Wednesday. Time for yet another UNRWA funding crisis". Clue: if you're looking for Arab participation in the sharing of the financial burden, bring a magnifying glass. It's an open scandal, and an education for anyone wanting to comprehend the rank hypocrisy that has been part of the Arab world's "support" for the Palestinian Arab side in the conflict for the past several generations.

Which brings us to this evening and the fact that all of Israel came to a very nervous standstill this evening (Tuesday) around 9:00 pm when incoming-rocket sirens suddenly wailed all over our tiny country's south, indicating a rocket attack from Gaza.

Impoverished or not, money that enables the building of rockets, tunnels and luxury homes for the arch-terrorists who control the place is, was and probably always will be available in generous servings because, at the end of the day, they are what Hamas stands for.

Not for the first time, it's evident [as this post of ours makes plain: "6-Jul-14: For Hamas, Fatah and the PA, those rockets are about money, power, foreign aid and (naturally) corruption"] that the death and mayhem that results from Islamist hatred and jihad has cash at its heart.

And what of the rights, the interests, the well-being of the Gazans? We estimate they rank about as high up the ladder of Arab concern as the safety and security of  the Syrians, the Iraqis and the Libyans and the countries they lived in until mind-numbingly vicious Arab-on-Arab savagery descended upon them.

23-Nov-14: Gaza's wealth and where it is - and is not - going

Khaled Mashaal: Almost inconceivably wealthy
Hamas top dog, in his non-Gaza residence

A flurry of recent reports, like this one from Haaretz and a post of ours ["16-Nov-14: Gazan money, Gazan terror"], say that Hamas is now the world's second wealthiest terror organization. It has income on the order of a billion US dollars per year. And it's not just the organization: among its kleptocratic leadership are some newly-super-wealthy career-terrorists, prominent among them Mousa Abu Marzouk and Khaled Mashaal, Arafat would have admired their cynical brazenness.

Keep that in mind as we revisit the matter of how the damage from this summer's war with Israel is (or is not) being repaired.

A BBC report ["Gaza reconstruction facing obstacles despite aid"] reminds us that the International Donor Conference in Cairo on October 12, 2014

ended with pledges to Gaza that added up to about $5.4bn (£3.4bn)... a powerful signal that help was at hand. The reality is slightly more complex... Of that $5.4bn,, about half has been earmarked for the direct repair of war-damage - the reconstruction of buildings, roads, electricity supply lines and sewerage systems. It is not immediately clear how the rest of the money will be spent - but Gaza has no shortage of needs.

(About that mystery, the rest of the money is likely intended to be appropriated by Fatah officials. Which when you think about it - and this April 2014 post of ours can help - is quite outrageous.)

Most people will understand those Gazan needs to include improved water supply and sewage disposal, better roads, schools that begin to approach the needs of a 21st century society, decent hospitals, medical supplies, and so on. Not a short or inexpensive list. You don't need a great imagination or deep familiarity with Gaza's generations-old misery to figure that out.

Osama Hamdan, one of those senior expatriate Palestinian Arab "leadership" figures, is quoted during October by a sympathetic online publication saying

"Hamas is not going to spare any effort to support the reconstruction mission... The real goal of the reconciliation [with Fatah, with whom there are in reality endless cat fights] is to serve the Palestinian people and their cause,"

To illustrate what Hamdan means about Hamas serving the Palestinian Arabs, and what is truly on the top of the Hamas collective mind, here's a new video. It was posted just yesterday by a Palestinian "news agency" with the usual sort of agenda ("to expose the crimes of the occupation against the Palestinian people"). And as clearly as video can, it demonstrates the current reality: what's being done right now with the Gazan Palestinian Arab people's resources:



The military-sounding audio track, the typical grinding chant of the male voices, the manly men with guns and uniforms - as if this were a real military with discipline, rules, principles and so on - make clear that Hamas - far from acknowledging that they brought destruction onto the heads of the Gaza beleagured population - are on the road to the next installment of their ongoing jihad. And let the consequences fall where they may.

That, plainly, is their message to their own people in their own language. What they tell the world, and especially the money sources, is an entirely other matter.

So let's go back to what the donor governments who are providing that astronomical quantum of money were told it's all for (source: the Donor Conference website):

The goal of the conference is to strengthen the basis of the ceasefire and improving political solution prospects for the conflict through:
(i) Strengthening the Palestinian government's ability to assume its responsibility in the rehabilitation of Gaza Strip.
(ii) Enhancing the existing UN mechanism for import and export of goods and materials to and from Gaza.
(iii) Providing the financial support required for reconstructing Gaza Strip.

Not much evidence in the Hamas video clip above of those goals being achieved. In fact, not even a whisper. The tax-payers of the main giving states might want to ask their treasury people whether the cheques are already signed. They include Qatar ($1bn). Saudi Arabia ($500m), Turkey ($200m), United Arab Emirates ($200m), the European Union ($568m), the United States ($212m) and the United Kingdom ($32m).

Looking on the slightly-less-dark side, we can hope the analyst from the BBC was right when he wrote:

It is a simple truth that governments do not always honour pledges they make to good causes at moments of international crisis. Palestinian officials have said that most of the money pledged after Gaza's conflict with Israel in 2009 for example never came. So for the moment that $5.4bn has a rather theoretical feel to it - but it is reasonable to assume that a substantial amount of money is on its way.

For the sake of the victims of the Hamas Billionaire's Club, let's hope he's right about the first part of his assessment. And wrong about the second.

And a request: if anyone finds online video of Gaza reconstruction and repairs now underway, please email us right away. That would be something worth reporting. Then again, as the BBC notes

However quickly and completely those donor nations cough up the cash, the truth is that without some sort of political progress between Israel and the Palestinians - of which there is absolutely no sign - there is no guarantee that anything rebuilt in Gaza this year or next year won't simply be destroyed again in the next conflict.

That very likely includes those shiny new, concrete-lined millions-of-dollars-each terrorism tunnels.

16-Nov-14: Gazan money, Gazan terror

The impossibly wealthy Mashaal, not in Gaza (since
he neither lives nor works there) watching from a luxuriously safe distance
[Image Source]

An Associated Press report published more than three years ago seems to have had a sharp eye on the economic fortunes of the self-selecting clique of Hamas insiders who have brought unspeakable misery onto the heads of Gaza's Palestinian Arabs. Headlined "Are Hamas Loyalists Growing Rich on the Backs of Poorer Palestinians?", the analysis by Scott Baker from August 2011 starts with this:

A budding middle class in the impoverished Gaza Strip is flaunting its wealth, sipping coffee at gleaming new cafes, shopping for shoes at the new tiny shopping malls, and fueling perhaps the most acrimonious grass roots resentment yet toward the ruling Hamas movement. This middle class, which has become visible at the same time as a mini-construction boom in this blockaded territory, is celebrating its weddings in opulent halls and vacationing in newly built beach bungalows. That level of consumption may be modest by Western standards, but it’s in startling contrast to the grinding poverty of most Gazans, who rely on U.N. food handouts to get by. Some of the well-off are Hamas loyalists. That rankles many Gaza residents because the conservative Islamic movement gained popularity by tending to the poor — through charitable aid, education and medical care — along with its armed struggle against Israel.
“Hamas has become rich at the expense of the people,” fumed a 22-year-old seamstress, Nisrine, as she stitched decorative applique onto a dress. She wouldn’t disclose her family name, not wanting to be seen criticizing the militant group.
Gaza’s Hamas government denies its loyalists have gotten wealthy since the group came to power.
Corruption “doesn’t touch us,” said Hamas official Yusef Rizka... “There is a nouveau riche that has followed the rise of the government,” said Alaa Araj, a former Gaza economic minister and businessman considered close to Hamas. “We must sound the alarm,” he said.
...Some two-thirds of Gaza’s 1.6 million people live in poverty and rely on U.N. food aid. About half the work force is unemployed. Many employed Gazans are paid miserly wages, keeping them struggling. They include the seamstress Nisrine, who is paid $5 a day, money that her family keeps. Baker Sami Awad, 27, earns $9 a day to support his five siblings and his sister’s two children. Their father abandoned them years ago; his sister’s husband was killed in an Israeli incursion. Their stories are typical.
Hamas has always had a small core of prominently wealthy loyalists. But it appears another small group has seen its fortunes rise since the Hamas came to power, primarily investors and high-level civil servants in Gaza’s 24,000-strong bureaucracy...

Hamas has become rich at the expense of the people, the young woman interviewed in 2011 says. And now, three years later, we have a published estimate of just how rich.

Quoting a business magazine, Times of Israel in a November 13, 2014 report ["Hamas second-richest terror group in world, Forbes says"] estimates that Hamas is now number two on the list of Top 10 terror groups by wealth, with assets of a billion dollars. Unlike number one, ISIS, Hamas does not have access to oil it can sell, or established banks whose vaults it can plunder:

The report does not detail where the terror groups get their money from, but Hamas had been able to control imports into the Gaza Strip through a series of smuggling tunnels from Sinai before they were largely destroyed by Egypt’s army over the last two years. The organization is also backed by international donors like Qatar who donate money to the Strip. [Times of Israel]

(If you're wondering, Hamas comes just ahead of FARC, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia which has $600 million in assets; Hezbollah is fourth with $500 million; and the Taliban, with an estimated $400 million.)

Jonathan Tobin, writing last week in Commentary Magazine, adds that while

Hamas has no oil fields or banks at its disposal... it has something almost as good: An overpopulated strip of land where more than a million people live at their misery. Though Hamas long maintained an image as an efficient provider of social services to the people of Gaza, the reality is that it is—like its Fatah rivals in the West Bank—more akin to a mafia family than a government and rakes in money extorted or taxed from Gazans hand over fist. Hamas also profited handsomely from control of the smuggling tunnels that used to link Gaza to Egypt and also rakes in huge amounts of aid from its Gulf State patrons...

In the wake of the July/August fighting with Israel, Hamas is now expecting the arrival of cash from a wide range of donors who pledged some $5.4 billion during a one-day donor conference in October 2014. Qatar promised $1 billion of that total (but note that despite its astronomical wealth, the gas-rich family business has been a notorious non-payer in past pledge rounds.) Via its Secretary of State, the US committed $400 million; the United Arab Emirates and Turkey each pledged $200 million. According to The Guardian,

"The amount promised at conference in Cairo far exceeded the $4bn the Palestinian Authority said it would cost for reconstruction..."

but there is not much in the way of explanation as to how the excess money will be applied. Tobin assesses the impact:

In the absence of a commitment to overthrow Hamas, money donated to Gaza is an investment in future war, not peace or humanitarian values. Its place on the list of wealthiest terror group mocks the West as much as it does the Palestinians who suffer under their rule. [Commentary Magazine]

So too does the personal fortune of Khaled Mashaal, the Hamas supremo who lives in luxurious quarters in Doha, Qatar, far from the Gaza Strip, and who is said to have amassed, along with Mousa Abu Marzuk

vast personal wealth estimated at $2.5 billion each. Mashaal was alleged to have appropriated, for himself and his confidantes, the entire Hamas "Syrian Fund" of hundreds of millions of US dollars upon leaving Damascus for an opulent lifestyle in Qatar in 2012 [Wikipedia]

The photos below are from the July 2011 opening of the al-Andulusia Mall in the Gaza Strip. It's no Beverly Hills. But neither should the Hamas-dominated area be confused with an open-air prison or worse, as so many media commentators are fond of terming Gaza. This $4 million, multi-story shopping center would never have been built if Gazan investors were not confident that they would profit from it. Their situation assessments don't depend on The Guardian or the BBC.

There has never been much secret about how the economic interests of Hamas and its inner clique serve as fundamental causes of the endless deprivation and violence that characterize today's Gaza Strip. Why the political leaders of the wealthy countries of the West would choose to ignore this, and its consequences, is the real mystery.