World Donors Pledge $7.4B For Palestine

Total Exceeds Amount Expected To Help Struggling State

(AP)  World donors pledged US$7.4 billion (euro5.1 billion) over the next three years for the Palestinians at a conference Monday, a massive sum that beats the Palestinians' own expectations, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said.

"The real winner today is the Palestinian state," Kouchner told a news conference after the gathering of nearly 90 countries and international organizations in Paris. "We wanted US$5.6 billion, we have US$7.4 billion, not bad."

The Palestinian government had asked for US$5.6 billion (euro3.8 billion) in 2008-2010 to shore up its economy amid a renewed push for a Palestinian state.

"Our feeling is great, this is generous. It is a vote of confidence for the program, and a sign of solidarity on the Palestinian question," Palestinian Planning Minister Samir Abdullah told The Associated Press.

He confirmed the overall figure and said the pledges include US$2.9 billion (euro2 billion) for 2008.

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said, "We take it as an endorsement." He called it part of the process for "establishing an independent Palestine."

The Palestinians are seeking to ride on the momentum of resumed peace efforts after a U.S.-sponsored conference in Annapolis, Maryland, last month.

The sum pledged Monday was substantial even compared to the more than US$10 billion (euro7 billion) that donor countries have given to the Palestinians over the past decade, according to the World Bank. Officials have said the Palestinians have received more international aid on a per capita basis than any other nation or group of people in the postwar period.

World leaders at the conference also urged Israel to ease restrictions on movement in the West Bank and Gaza to make a recovery of the Palestinian economy possible.

Some 90 countries and international organizations came together in Paris for the biggest pledging conference in more than a decade.

As numbers trickled in, many donors were focusing their aid on 2008, leaving plans for future budget years hazy. That made it difficult to keep a running tally of overall contributions.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pledged US$555 million (euro382.5 million) for 2008. However, the money includes about US$400 million (euro275 million) that the White House has already announced but that has not been approved by Congress.

"The Palestinian Authority is experiencing a serious budgetary crisis," Rice said. "This conference is literally the government's last hope to avoid bankruptcy."

The United States provides more than US$2 billion (euro1.4 billion) a year in aid to Israel, its closest Mideast ally and single largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid. Egypt, the first Arab state to make peace with Israel, receives about US$1.3 billion (euro900 million).

[antoniof123]

Well, tax payers you guess it we foot the tab on this peace. what happens when we can no longer afford it.

[fornicario]

I''m glad this country can''t afford health care for poor children, but we can pony up 500 million for Palestine. After all, they would have had to ''make do'' with only 6.9 BILLION if we did not sacrifice the poor.

[robertkjjj]

Complete waste of money. Only thing I want to give the Palestinians is a swift kick in their lazy, violent, ****es.

[cdfoxtrot]

I''''m glad this country can''''t afford health care for poor children, but we can pony up 500 million for Palestine. After all, they would have had to ''''make do'''' with only 6.9 BILLION if we did not sacrifice the poor.

Posted by Fornicario

This amount for the Palestinians is peanuts compared to what would be needed for child health care in the US, free third-level education in the US, etc. And the expenditure wouldn''t be necessary if the US didn''t blindly support Israel in everything it does. Why don''t you all complain about the $2bn+ spent EVERY YEAR on Israel -- much of it on military stuff that does nothing for humanitarian needs, unlike the small amount that''s now promised to the Palestinians. If you''re really interested in the topic, educate yourselves on the issue and then go agitate for a change in US foreign policy. Then the US and others wouldn''t have to go throwing money at Palestinians to help avert the humanitarian crises they keep having.

[cdfoxtrot]

Complete waste of money. Only thing I want to give the Palestinians is a swift kick in their lazy, violent, ****es.

Posted by robertkjjj

How about you get off YOUR lazy a$s and go over there, and say it to them directly? I''ll pay for your ticket. I''m guessing you''ll only need a one-way flight. What a brave little person hiding behind your anonymous billboard name.

[jackie0428]

At first thought this sounded like a huge amount. But then, with 11 million people, this is $672 per head, or only $224 per person per year for 3 years. On second thought, I''m not sure there is a single Muslim in the world who is worth THAT MUCH money. Look, no matter what you do, this money will never help the poor. Rather, it will go to 3 uses: (1) more arms and bombs to use against Israel (2) more arms and bombs to use against fellow Palestinian terrorists (3) the corrupt pockets of the PLO, and their Swiss bank accounts. Arafat was shown to have stolen BILLIONS in the aid given to him, so when does the world get their collective head out of their as*s and cut these bloodsucking parasites off?

[jackie0428]

cdfoxtrot, since you clearly love these lazy good-for-nothing terrorists so much, why don''t YOU just open YOUR wallet and give them $7 billion of YOUR money? Why do YOU insist on spending OUR money? Don''t have a good answer for that, do you? You lazy liberals just LOVE to spend other''s money. You and the Palestinians and the PLO and Fatah and Hamas and rest of them can all go to he*ll. The quicker the better.

[fornicario]

I do complain, but I''m only part of the former middle class, so they only deign to bother with me when it''s time for them to loot my pockets again. And 672 dollars this year would buy the Christmas gifts I can''t afford. Obviously you are making money off the suffering of others, so this must be irritating to hear the complaints of those who don''t live in the ivory tower, cdfoxtrot

[krenz4]

Great, just what they need. Something else to fight over. They will never make peace and build a true state that can be respected in any way. This is more money poured down a *** hole. They are just going to use it to attack Israel and whine about how everybody hates them. How many more $$ provided by the rest of the world is going to be squandered? Why dont their muslim brothers who are always invoking the name of palestine dig into their own pockets to prop up this useless ''state?'' I am sick of them being on the dole and doing absolutely nothing on their own behalf.

[krenz4]

Besides, once their bellies are full and they have the billions in their pockets, that money is going to be called meddling in their affairs.

[drivelphobe]

Now they can build a wall to keep the Israelis out.

[missingamerica]

***, CBS! Just switch to publishing the news in Euros.

All the "$7.4 billion (euro5.1 billion)" is just a waste of space, and with bill for the leadership and the economic policies of the last 27 years now coming due these constant comparisons can only get more embarrassing.

There''s no sense rubbing our nose in it.

[johnny343sc]

Great... now they can buy Chinese/Iranian/Russian/Syrian weapons to shoot back at Israelis and America when WWIII breaks out in the Middle East in the next 10 years.

;)

[donbl1]

Is this good or bad. The Palestinians may be getting close to realizing that peace is better than blood feuds.

I think this $7B will prolong the strife.

[libsluvsuvs]

There''''s no sense rubbing our nose in it.

Posted by ibsteve2u at 04:28 PM : Dec 17, 2007
+ report abuse

*************

YOU ARE SUCH A EURP WINNIE..the reason WHY is because most of the money or if not ALL of the money came from europe. CBS printed the cost in dollars

[mcv57]

Minister Bernard Kouchner could be the Beast. I see the four horsemen saddling-up.

[neoconrcrazy]

The Occupied Palestinian Territories: Dignity Denied:

The ICRC has released a new report, Dignity Denied, focusing on the worsening humanitarian situation in the occupied Palestinian territories. Ahead of a conference of major donors in Paris next week, the organization is calling for immediate political action to ease the burden on the Palestinian population, which is facing severe hardship exacerbated by strict restrictions on the movement of goods and people.

International Red Cross (www.icrc.org)

[neoconrcrazy]

israel''s legacy in southern Lebanon:

Last November many of your missions attended a briefing here by the ICRC''s Director for International Law and Cooperation within the Movement, Mr Philip Spoerri. At that time the international community was beginning to understand the severe and widespread impact on civilians of cluster munitions used in the conflict in southern Lebanon a few months earlier. This conflict of only one month left a land area estimated at 37 million square metres contaminated with close to one million unexploded submunitions. These have caused 206 civilian casualties and 42 casualties among clearance personnel since the fighting stopped. The conflict once again demonstrated how easy it is to use these weapons in massive numbers and how even wars of a short duration can leave a tragic humanitarian legacy.

www.icrc.org

[neoconrcrazy]

ICRC calls for immediate resumption of family visits for Gaza residents to Israeli prisons ;

Jerusalem (ICRC) - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) urges the Israeli authorities to authorise the prompt resumption of visits for families from Gaza with their relatives detained in Israeli prisons.


The visits have been suspended since 6 June 2007, following a decision by the Israeli authorities.

"It is impossible to understand that such a decision is taken solely on security grounds. Family visits to Israeli prisons have been organised for decades. There is no reason for this six-month suspension of family visits for Gaza residents," says Christoph Harnisch, the ICRC''s Head of Delegation in Tel Aviv.

According to international humanitarian law, detainees have the right to maintain family links, including visits from close relatives.

The ICRC recently distributed warm clothing to the concerned detainees.

With the exception of one prison, Palestinians are detained in prisons located inside Israel. An average of 20,000 family members travel monthly to prisons inside Israel.

In November, the ICRC conducted 32 visits to 15 Israeli places of detention, including interrogation centres, provisional detention centres, police stations and prisons. There are currently over 11,000 Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons.

www.icrc.org

[neoconrcrazy]

Homes in illegal Israeli settlements for sale at London expo


Haroon Siddique
Friday November 16, 2007
Guardian Unlimited


Israeli companies are using UK property shows to sell housing in illegal Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, Guardian Unlimited can reveal.
At the Israel Property Exhibition at Brent town hall, North London last Sunday, one company, Anglo-Saxon Real Estate, was offering for sale properties in Maale Adumim and Maccabim. Both West Bank settlements lie on the Palestinian side of the so-called green line, the pre-1967 boundary and often cited as the border between Israel and a future Palestinian state.

www.guardian.co.uk

[closethippy1]

The money recently donated to the Palestinians is nothing compared to the $21 billion restitution money Israel is asking the US pay Palestinian refugees for what Israel has done to them.
If I''m not mistaken the US has already agreed to pay the $21 billion once an agreement is reached.
I understand Israelis now want the US to subsidize trips to Israel so Americans can go there and for a week or so wipe the butts of Israelis after taking a dump.
I''m sure a lot of Americans would be more than happy to oblige.

[neoconrcrazy]

"The settlement movement has become closely affiliated to Jewish religious nationalism, which claims boundaries of modern Israel based on Genesis 15:18: "God made a covenant with Abram and said, ''To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates''." BBC London

what are we doing in iraq?
iraq belongs to israel - that''s His last word.

[keithle1]

"Nazis! That money should have gone to Israel! What is this "Palestine" that you speak of?!"

It''s all about Israel in the USA.

Israel, Israel, Israel. 24-7.

[chitown639]

The Palestinians get $7 billion, great!!! Hopefully, the money will be use on the poor Palestinian people, who live like prisoners in their own land. But, more than likely most of that money will be use on weapons. But, big donations are nothing new for that region. The U.S. has given billions in aid to Isreal for decades, including to the Isreali military. The U.S. has given Isreal some of the most advanced weapontry, including ''The Bomb''. Our politicians run their election campaigns promising unwavering support for Isreal, clearly pandering to the U.S. large Jewish population. Many of the foes we have today is in response to that unwavering support for Isreal.

[underdogus]

US official issues statement in support of ISRAEL airstrikes in GAZA!! yeah buddy!!

[gaye5]

Great, they rake in money from countries Like America, Australia, Canada, and Britain and now some idiots give another 7.4 billion... and of course as we have seen in the past the money will NOT go to the people but into the hands of weapon makers and the leaders.. The poor children will continue to stave.. Then we have the tiny little place like Israel which is only as big as lake Michigan and these same people don''t give Israel a thing yet it is this tiny little country which has given the world more in the way of medical and industrial miracles than any other country per head of population.. This tiny little country which is surrounded by trillions of angry Muslims who want them dead and gone has given the world medical things which has saved thousands of people yet the world still hates them.. Without Israel we would not be where we are today...

[gaye5]

The Global Islamic population is approximately 1,200,000,000, or 20% of the world population, and since 1988 they have received 7 Nobel prizes.
The Global Jewish population is approximately 14,000,000, or about 0.02% of the world population.
Yet they have received 129 Nobel Prizes in Literature:
Peace: Economics: and Medicine:

They give 7.4 billion to the Muslims yet Israel gets nothing and it is not the Jews who are not promoting brain washing the children in military training camps, teaching them how to blow themselves up and cause maximum deaths of Jews and other non Muslims.

The Jews don''t hijack planes, nor kill athletes at the Olympics.

The Jews don''t traffic slaves, nor have leaders calling for Jihad and death to all the Infidels.

Perhaps the world''s Muslims should consider investing more in standard education and less in blaming the Jews for all their problems.

Regardless of your feelings about the crisis between Israel and the Palestinians and Arab neighbors, even if you believe there is more culpability on Israel''s part , the following two sentences really say it all:

If the Arabs put down their weapons today, there would be no more violence.

If the Jews put down their weapons today, there would be no more Israel.

[neoconrcrazy]

If the Arabs put down their weapons today, there would be no more violence.

If the Jews put down their weapons today, there would be no more Israel.
Posted by Gaye5

whoa dude! let''s take things one step at a time. First, let''s give back the stolen palestinian lands and settle that grievance - then take a new look about how best to get more educational opportunities to Arab countries who sorely need it.

[neoconrcrazy]

They give 7.4 billion to the Muslims yet Israel gets nothing - gaye5

that''s not correct - israel has asked for 23''000''000''000 (23 billion) from america to "re-settle" and "restitute" palestinians IF a final peace agreement is finalized.

israel also recieves each year up to 7 billion in "non-refundable loans" (funny name, wish I had a few!), both economic & military.

so, don''t think israel "is getting nothing" - some think it''s obcene.

[grazinggoat]

This tiny little country which is surrounded by trillions of angry Muslims who want them dead and gone has given the world medical things which has saved thousands of people yet the world still hates them.. Without Israel we would not be where we are today...

Posted by Gaye5 at 09:26 AM : Dec 18, 2007

-IDIOTTT, MOST of Biological, Medical and Genetics discoveries and innovations are done in USA, Europe. Israeli researchers are ''industrial-spying'' (politely said for stealing) on Europeans and Americans researchers, research facilities. Remove this thick blinder layer from your eyes, Gay5. You are such an obvious biased commentator.

[grazinggoat]

CBS News: ''Senate Approves $70 Billion In War Funds
Money For U.S. Military Efforts In Iraq, Afghanistan A Victory For Bush And GOP Allies''

-$70 Billions, for more destruction, more misery-making in those two countries. And we pledge a ridiculously tiny 555 millions (roughly a 0.8%) of our invasion-destruction-WAR budget. What a warmonger nation we became! Pitiful!