The headline in today's front page story in the Boston Globe concerning the Palestinian authority reads “Palestinian Authority faces financial crisis”. The few paragraphs on page 1 report that the authority has only $19 million cash on hand to meet its payroll expenses for the remainder of the year. Going beyond the fold, to the continuation of the story on page 16 however, we find the damning details.
The reason that the Palestinian authority is short of cash is that Arafat has personal discretion over vast amounts of PA assets, funds which he has placed in secret numbered bank accounts abroad and which he personally controls. With Arafat now in a coma and with the mob-like structure of the PA government, that relies on personality rather than institutions, there is no one who can move the funds, and they are likely to be a source of conflict between Arafat’s would-be successors. The Authority has over 100,000 employees, but their personal loyalty to the Authority rather than Arafat's rivals is unlikely to survive a few missed payrolls.
The interesting story reveals that Arafat may be worth billions, all of which of course came originally as aid payments to his impoverished Palestinian followers. Connecting the dots, Arafat is in fact a Middle Eastern version of a kleptocratic dictator, the type of which no liberal or conservative worth his salt could or would stomach. The Globe reporters do a fine job in reporting the gory details of Arafat's corruption. Would that the headline writer had equal courage. Instead, in a classic headline half-truth he writes “Palestinian authority faces financial crisis”.
Here are some choice excerpts. Credit to the Liberal Media for this story, headline excepted. Please read the whole thing.
Article comments
1 - Jeff
The Globe reporters do a fine job in reporting the gory details of Arafat's corruption.
I don't understand why you felt the need to make this a story about the big bad liberal media. From what you say, it seems like the article did nothing to white wash the fact that Arafat is not only a murdered but steals from his own people. So the headline wasn't to your liking? Who cares? I wonder who you think is worse, Arafat or the Boston Globe.
2 - Harry Forbes
To answer your question, Jeff: Arafat.
I thought the Globe's story was excellent, but they will not bend themselves to call Arafat a kleptocrat, at least in a headline, even when that is absolutely the gist of the whole story.
The reason for the financial "crisis" in the PA is not a lack of funds, it is that all the assets (likely worth BILLIONS of dollars) is under the sole and complete control of the now-comatose Arafat. In this way Arafat is like Mobutu, Bebe Doc Duvalier, or Idi Amin; a long-lived and wealthy exploitative dictator of a country that (by no coincidence) is chronically impoverished.
If you look that up in the dictionary, look under "scum of the earth".
Arafat won the Nobel Peace prize in 1994.
3 - RJ
Clinton had Arafat in the White House HOW MANY TIMES?
4 - SFC Ski
Put it this way, if the CEO of a large corporation had done the same thing as Arafat had, the Globe, or any other paper, would have been much harsher.