by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright January 27, 2015
All Rights Reserved.

                   United Nations Relief and Works Agency [UNRWA] announced today that it?s run out of cash to pay for rebuilding the Gaza Strip after its devastating war with Israel July 8-26, 2014.  ?The agency has exhausted all funding to support repairs and rental subsidies,? said UNRWA, asking why the Oct. 12, 2014 donors? conference failed to collect the $5.4 billion in pledges to the Gaza Strip. Calling the failure to pay up ?distressing and unacceptable,? UNRWA has no answer for why rich Mideast oil Emirates haven?t coughed up the promised cash.  It?s no accident that Hamas? government in exile, led by 58-year-old Khalid Meshaal, was evicted Jan. 26 from Doha, Qatar, after staying only three years.  Before leaving for Doha in 2012, Meshaal was hosted by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for 15 years, before Palestinians joined the fight to out the Syrian president.

             Denying that Meshaal over spent his welcome in Qatar, the Hamas-PLO government refused to acknowledge thet Hamas moved to Istanbul at the invitation of 60-year-old Islamist President Reecp Tayyip Erdogan.  Without the $5.4 billion in pledges delivered to the PLO-Hamas government, Hamas lacks the cash not only to rebuild Gaza but to pay thousands of civil servants on the Hamas payroll.  ?$5.4 billion was pledged at the Cairo [aid] conference last Octobers and virtually none of it has reached Gaza.  This is distressing and unacceptable,? said UNRWA, baffled by the lack of collections.  ?It is unclear why this funding has not be forthcoming,? not realizing that Gaza?s Hamas rulers could collect the cash and repeat the unending cycle of going to war against Israel.  Whatever the conditions in Gaza, Hamas knew that firing rockets into Israel would invite devastating attacks by Israeli Defense Forces.

             Without taking sides, UNRWA knows that waging war against Israel was a costly proposition for Gaza civilians and infrastructure.  Hamas militants continued firing rockets despite knowing the damage wreaked on the densely populated Gaza Strip.  Frustrated with the failed peace process, 79-year-old PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas gave Hamas the green light to fire rockets into Israel, hoping to sway world opinion against Israel.  While the 2014 Gaza War certainly caused Israel bad publicity, it also stiffened its resolve to stop Hamas rocket attacks.  Claiming that the homes of 96,000 Gazan were lost in the war, Gaza?s citizens welcomed the conflict believing Hamas leaders that Palestinians could prevail militarily against the Jewish State.  Waging war against Israel, the PLO-Hamas government knew the damage they?d cause to Gaza civilians, residential and commercial property.

             Donor states got cold feet turning over billions to the PLO-Hamas government knowing they?re still at war with Israel and the entire destructive cycle could repeat itself. Abbas?s Ramallah-based PLO blames Israel for a lack of progress toward an independent Palestinian State.  After the Cairo-donors conference, the PLO-Hamas decided, over U.S. objections, to go directly to the U.N. Security Council for Palestinan statehood.  When that failed Dec. 30, 2014, they decided to try the International Criminal Court to seek reparations from the 2014 Gaza War.  With Hamas refusing to change its war footing with Israel, donors got cold feet knowing that Hamas would not start another war at its convenience.  No one other than PLO-Hamas leadership pressed the rocket war with Israel, believing they could eventually collect the reconstruction funds to run the Gaza government.

               Countries reluctant to pay for $5.4 billion in pledges fear that the current PLO-Hamas leadership will squander the cash, only to run out again in the near future.  Spending already $77 million on Gaza rebuilding, UNRWA can?t make up the billions more needed to rebuild Gaza?s destroyed homes and infrastructure.  ?This is a tremendous achievement, it is also wholly insufficient . . . We are talking about thousands of families who continue to suffer through this cold winter with inadequate shelter.  People are literally sleeping amongst the rubble.  Children have died of hypothermia,? raising pressing questions about PLO-Hamas leadership.  Knowing Gaza?s dense poverty, PLO-Hamas waged war to damage Israel?s brand, pressure the U.N. into approving an independent Palestinians State and to seek war reparations from the International Criminal Court.

             PLO-Hamas's failure to collect on some or all of the $5.4 billion pledges at a Cairo donors? conference Oct. 12 relates to donors skepticism that they?d squander the cash and start a new war with Israel when convenient.  Without a public declaration by PLO-Hamas to end its war with Israel, a negotiated settlement is unrealistic.  No sovereign state can be expected to negotiate with group sworn to its destruction.  When the PLO joined Hamas April 23, the combined entity was at war with Israel, unwilling to make peace.  It didn?t take long for PLO-Hamas to abduct and murder three Israel teens June 12 and begin firing rockets from Gaza into Israel?s southern territory.  Whatever problems PLO-Hamas has with negotiating a peace deal with Israel, a rocket war was bound to end badly.  Losing 2,200 civilian lives and billions in property damage dug PLO-Hamas in a bigger hole than before the Gaza War.

About the Author

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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