Wednesday, February 01, 2006

German Chancellor questions continuation of EU aid to Palestinian Authority

The new German Chancellor, Andrea Merckel, warned the Palestinian leader Abbas that the EU may discontinue its annual 500 million Euro aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA). Since Islamist grass roots and terror movement Hamas won the Palestine elections the issue of support to the fledgeling PA, which employs 135,000 people. There are hardly any industries in the Palestinian areas and the Palestinians are dependent on jobs in the government bureaucracies and security services for economic survival. Otherwise they used to be employed in Israel, mainly in agriculture and construction. The past few years Israel has sealed its borders against Arabic workers, despite shortages of cheap labour developing.

Germany is a major contributor to the EU support for the PA. Without Germany's support for the aid continuation of the aid will be difficult. Also other countries besides Germany will be opposed to aiding what is in effect a terrorist groups representing a population that is bend on the destruction of the Jewish State.

The German persecution of European Jewry during the Era of the Third Reich mortgages the policy of Germany. But without the memories of the Second World War support for terrorism would be difficult, especially with the constant attacks on Western targets.

In the period before the Israeli war of Independence (1947-1948) the Israelis had built up strong agriculture and light industry to support their population. Since 1948 the Israeli's have strengthened their economic base year after year. In the late 1960ies the Israeli GNP grew to be larger than the GNP of the largest Middle Eastern nation, Egypt. This despite the fact that Israel had less than 3 million inhabitants and Egypt nearly 40 million!

The failure of the Palestinians to follow the example of the Israelis is typical for the world of Islam, which sees looting and taxation as the only sources of wealth. Both economic and technological advances are not pursued by the followers of Islam. Only Turkey and Malaysia have success in attracting investment and improving the socio economic level of their populations.

1 comment:

Snouck said...

Well, I think that Malaysia was already 60 percent Malay when Singapore broke away from the Malaysian federation in 1965. It is true that a lot of their investment came from abroad, but the fact is that it came to Malaysia and improved the per Capita income to a level that is 50 percent higher than Thailand. But the richest part of Malaysia are the Chinese parts such as Penang.

Have you got a source for desinvestment from Malaysia by Japan / Malaysia?

I understand now better the problems between the Singaporese Chinese and the Malays in 1965. The Singaporese Chinese are lucky with their leadership in that period of time plus the fact that they had to fight Communism, which made them tougher.

Btw, the Singaporese army was initially 100 percent Malay and for a time there were many officers that were Malay. How is that in India? Is a significant part of the Army Muslim? Can they be trusted?

Thanks for pointing out Koenraad Elst to me, IK. A splendid source of information!