Let's not forget, the nation of Israel was built on the aid of western nations. When the arab people were threatening the existence of the Israeli state, just as the Israeli state is threatening the existence of the palestinians now, there was the United States, Great Britain, and others, who donated money, arms, training to keep a fledgling state from being overrun. The article mentions the war on the palestinian economy by Israel, but does not elaborate. This aid would likely not even be necessary, if the Palestinians could access air and sea freight and perform international trade directly with the nations of the world. It would also not have to be in the role of the beggar if there weren't the threat of israeli bulldozers, whether it's from the threat of one militant or 1000, the simple solution is to bulldoze property, including houses, crops, everything. This reveals a hidden agenda by the Israeli government, that isn't as hidden to outside observers - choke the life out of the palestinian economy, and you will win the war. You might lose a few public opinion battles along the way, but you will win the war. A people with no income and no way to grow an income will quickly cease to exist. Genocide? In modern terms, yes.

I agree with much that is written here. Removing aid from a nation causes it to face its challenges honestly and pragmatically. However, in the interest of truth, perhaps a consideration of the aid provided to Israel by the U.S. alone should be taken. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/U.S._Assistance_to_Israel1.html I think the right thing to do is to stop supporting political ambitions and to start being responsibly compassionate.

This is the same economic commentator know-it-all who was in favor of giving guns to these same security forces 10 years ago.

If the palystinians werent so busy blowing them selves up James then maybe they could actually use the aid to build them selves a better life. Instead they live in a hole. Israel over a short period has built nice cities and has developed a strong economy stronger then any arab country so your argument is completley invalid and bias.

Let's help the French Canadians set up a terrorist state in Canada with suicide bombers and rockets at Toronto and we'll see how fast James the Goy will cry for help.

I've always wondered why the world cares so much for the Palestinians, as opposed to for instance: the Africans, Iraqis, Egyptians (who are poorer than Palestinians, but let's not be petty), north Koreans and Cubans (who have nothing), hey and how about saving the Iranians from their own "leaders" (so many of them have fled their homeland), and the list goes on and on…. But then no peoples' suffering can be compared to the Palestinian's plight; the most unfortunate people in the world. No peoples' suffering is as big and terrible as theirs. All nations must join hands to save the Palestinians from the Jewish devils, in doing so they will redeem the world of all its troubles. The Messiah will appear in full regalia and glory, the sun will send rays of light and hope, the world will glow in heavenly bliss, and peace will descend on the troubled earth, and no one will suffer again. So please, I beg you, do not stop financial support to the Palestinians; the future of the planet relies on it. End note: Sever you have hit the nail in the head. Good on ya, keep going. Kol Hakavod!!!

We did nothing wrong to you when you were in Europe. We had no part in the heinus crimes that were committed against you. Yes, you are responsible for the agony & the suffering of Palestinians. We happen to live on this part of the world. Kicking many of us out and having the rest to live under your occupation shall have some price. You shall compensate us for the many years of suffering & misplacing. As you did suffer, we suffered. We shall have more respect to each other.

What we need is that the Israeli,s to leave us alone and to go back to their nice cities and we will need no aids

What planet do you live on? I love it when all you lefties make rediculous one-sided comparisons that hold absolutely no water. Yes, Israel did recieve lots of foreign aid to support it in the beginning, but all the crap that you wrote afterwards has no meaning because it's not comparable. So what if Israel recieved foreign aid? Is that a bad thing in your opinion? Were they supporting terrorism at the time? Were they repressing their people at the time? Were they lying and forging economic documents at the time? No, they were defending themselves against an all out attack from the entire Arab world to destroy the country. You see the little difference? And you want the Palestinians to engage in free trade? What planet do you live on? Hamas runs the PA, and even illegally through Egypt they're smuggling weapons every day so what do you think they would do if they had legal access to the whole world? You're getting mixed up about the Israeli intentions. Israel doesn't want to choke out the Palestinian people, they want to choke out the Palestinian terrorists. Israel isn't trying to commit genocide you ***. If they were, they wouldn't do it by knocking down a few houses and killing a few terrorists, just use your common sense. Here in Israel we have more than just economic problems, but I wouldn't expect you to know this. Here, we must look at other aspects of life, such as the security of OUR OWN people, before we worry about others' economies. When will you get it through your head that Israel is fighting terrorism, not the Palestinian people?

Here is an article from 1997 about how much aid Israel has been getting from the United States. http://www.wrmea.com/backissues/1297/9712043.html As a US taxpayer, it appalls me that I have no choice but to have some of my money go to Israel because I think they have done some horrible things to the Palestinians, too. If you are talking about cutting aid to the Palestinians, let's see how Israel survives if American aid was ever cut. The Palestinians have nothing and have lived under Israeli occupation for so long. Do you really think cutting aid will force them to comply to Israel's rules? It will cause more violence and bloodshed.

I don't understand why Israel thinks allowing the Palestinian economy to completely collapse by stopping aid is going to be in Israel's interests. The PA wasted too much aid in corruption, but investing in greenhouses is pointless if Israel can arbitrarily seal the borders and leave the produce to rot. Aid from the international community also relieves Israel of its obligations to provide for the Palestinians as an occupying power - if the prevention of aid caused a humanitarian crisis, where do you think people will lay the blame? Failed states (or non-states, in this case) create enormous problems for any region. If Israel thinks it has problems now, they will only escalate if Hamas can blame a humanitarian disaster on Israel and the international community.

Everything Israel does is always a precurser for more arab violence. Arab violence has reached it's sateration point. They are killing at their top capasity and it would be worse if not for the IDF. I'll try to explain so even you can understand. When you jump in a swimming pool you get wet. Staying in the pool does not make you more wet. The pals are in the pool, they can't get wetter, they can only drown.

During the 1948 war, the Israeli arms came from Czechoslovakia or were smuggled in. The US had put arms embargo and Britain supported the Arab side, with British officers commanding Jordanian forces. There was no international organization to support Jewish refugees to Israel -- all Holocaust survivors or escapees from the Arab countries-- but only Israel and Jewish private charities. Most of those refugees lived in very difficult conditions in tent cities or in barracks with tin roofs under Israeli sun. The conditions somewhat abetted after Germany paid war reparations to the Holocaust survivors and to Israel. Britain has consistently been anti-Israeli from the inception of Israel; the US was "neutral." There was no aid to Israel until 1960s from the US, never from any other country, even though there were as many Jewish refugees from the Arab countries in Israel as were Arab refugees out of Israel. It is truly amazing that without any natural resources Israelis managed to build such a vibrant country out of the poverty and misery they started with, and despite having to absorb waive after waive of penniless refugees from such a diverse places as Kazakhstan, Poland and Ethiopia.

You want to compensate the Jews from Iraq, the Jews whose property was stolen in 1948?

EU gives aid to Arabs because people of EU hate blacks and want them all to die in Africa. Very simple, ask British people. Ask French. Ask Germans. They give money to Arabs because Arabs want to kill white people in EU and they afraid Arabs. Very simple.

The aid is an adiction. It will cause short term suffering to break the addiction, buf will be so much better in the long run. Stan

Almost all of Africa is starving. Black Africa that is. Why doesn't Europe transfer all the aid it gives to the Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza to Africa? Darfur is a good place to start. Is Europe only interested in helping those who can facilitate oil flows? Europe. The PA is a drunk in the alley asking for more whiskey. You want the drunk to get off whiskey? Don't give the drunk any more money

If you want to pretend to be me, at least try to write something that makes sense.

And, it's also time that the Israeli government quit giving money to the Arabs and began to take care of the over 700,000 Jewish Israeli children who are going to bed at night hungry. Having a class of working poor in this day and in this country where the food is abundant is inexcusable. It's not up to the world to take care of us... even our Jewish family abroad won't help. We know we have asked. We need a government that is concerned about it's people, not only their safety but also their most basic needs. Having a Jewish Agency that eats up billions of dollars annually on meetings, cars, offices, salaries etc. when the money could be used for social services that are truly needed would be a much better use of the Jewish dollar. Have a great Pesach and be sure to help make certain that all Israel has what they need in all ways Rena www.levuneshama.org

Check out your facts, bro--the US didn't give much in the way of aid to Israel until after '67 when Israel fulfilled the US ambition to have an ally other than Turkey in the eastern Med to counter all those Soviet-client states like Egypt and Syria. Once Israel kicked some Soviet-client-state butt, THEN the US decided to help out--but in the name of 'even-handedness' gave even more to Egypt to buy them off the Russians. The State Dept, Arab-dictator-lovers to a (wo)man, hated and still hate Israel and push policies that support Arab dictatorships and lobby against aid to Israel. Likewise, the Bits and France helped Israel when it looked like it would counter Egyptian grabbing of the Suez, but since then, both countries haven't helped a bit. The real reversal came when the Arabs put Europe into a financial choke-hold with their oil embargo of '74--then the Europeans decided to play it economically safe and always come down on the side of the Arabs. All these countries help only when it suits their interests. Israel was built mostly on Jewish desperation and some arms from Czechoslovakia. There's no genocide here--what there is instead is a deliberate on-going practice of Arab leadership both inside and outside Palestine, using the Palestinians as pathetic pawns to further their own nationalist territorial ambitions. The Palestinian people have NO economic infrastructure---and yet Yasser Arafat died one of the richest men in the world. Palestinians are hungry and jobless because they are the world's biggest welfare state, thanks to the UNWRA, Europe, and the indifference of Arab leadership.

israelnationalnews Not One More Dime for the Palestinians by Lee Kaplan Mar 15, '06 ...Hamas has been regarded as separate from Fatah and the PLO, but both terrorist organizations signed an agreement in 1996 agreeing to work together, making Hamas a de facto part of the PLO. The "right of return" is a non-negotiable theme that maintains these refugees can never be assimilated into the Arab world. ...The PLO became a big business during those years, renting itself out to the Soviet Union and KGB and allying itself to revolutionary causes from the IRA to the Basque Separatist Movement to Castro's Cuba by providing training by its military wing. The PLO also went into legitimate businesses. By the 1970s, the PLO established SAMED, an Arabic acronym for Palestinian Martyr's Sons Enterprises. SAMED is actually a worldwide conglomerate swimming in money. Its portfolio includes farms, restaurants, retail stores, factories and even oil refineries. It holds real estate investments in France, Spain and England, and owns several newspapers. It even has controlling interest in a Monte Carlo radio station. The portfolio also includes large amounts of money invested in Wall Street and in stock exchanges in Tokyo, Paris and Frankfurt, including a large share of Mercedes Benz. Airlines in the Maldives, Caledonia, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Nicaragua, and duty free shops all over Africa are also in the portfolio, since they serve as covers for moving terrorists around and providing them travel documents - all while turning a profit. Mandatory tithing to Arafat by Palestinians living in other Arab states generated some $50 million dollars a year, while the Saudis and Gulf States donated billions of dollars to the PLO. Intelligence agencies have estimated that the PLO added $5 million dollars per day to its coffers during the 1970s and '80s, and British National Criminal Intelligence Services in 1994 estimated the PLO's net worth at $10 billion dollars. Besides SAMED, the Palestine Commercial Services Company today has a monopoly in flour, cement, cigarettes, oil and construction material in the Palestinian Authority. The Palestine Development and Investment Company (PADICO) controls 93% of all investments in the emerging "State of Palestine". The PLO even expanded its operations to the illicit drug trade. Other illegal enterprises included counterfeiting US currency, money laundering, arms smuggling, murders for hire and even bank robberies. The Guinness Book of World Records estimated PLO-organized bank robberies in Europe netted in excess of 100 million dollars. ...Direct aid and funds through non-governmental organizations exceeding at least $125 million a month, for only 3.2 million Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, came from the US, the EU and the Arab League (that only gives nominally). This doesn't include millions in UN funds for UNWRA, the United Nations Welfare Relief Agency, that is run not by the UN, but by the Palestinians themselves. UN aid estimates that Palestinians received $300 a year per person in handouts as "refugees", the highest figure given any refugees in the world. ...terrorists in the Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigade were being paid $50,000 a year; a salary many Americans would love to make, but a fortune in the Middle East, where $800 a month is considered a good income. Edward Abington, the former US state department consul general in Jerusalem, went to work for the PLO as their chief lobbyist in Washington at a salary of 2.5 million dollars annually. This, right after he agreed, in his former capacity, to donate 400 million dollars of USAID taxpayer money to the Palestinian Authority. http://www.israelnationalnews.com/article.php3?id=6093

Yes, USA should cut its aid to Israel. Israel uses my money to finance its occupation, to ethnically cleanse the natives of that land, to confiscate land, destroy crops, uproot trees, pollute water, create an aparthid regime and kill children and wome. STop USA aid to Israel ?

i can not sleep becouse i am hungry linda you are not the best to all go to bed

Israel doesnt need amercia anymore if anything AMerican needs israel more because it needs an allie in the region. If you had been to israel you would realize that its has a booming economy and that it could be compared to any modern country in the world, the only reason AMerican give israel so much aid it because they dont want israel to seel israeli developed technology to other countries so they are compensating them for this, so i dont think you know what your talking about when you question whether israel will survive.

It's nice that you have a computer and internet service. Massive U.S. Tax Dollars go every year to the PLO/PA whilst our people are NEGLECTED - they go hungry AND homeless.

Bible, Leviticus 24:17 "If a man takes the life of any human being, he shall surely be put to death" Black Africans are the indigenous people of Sudan and are the majority population. The black Southern Sudanese Christians explain what "peace" means: If you agree to become a Muslim, you will have peace. If you reject Islam, you are at war. From 1955-1973, 1.5 million Christians were slaughtered by the Arab Muslim government in Khartoum. From 1983-2005, two million more Christians died from Khartoum's jihad. Murdering infidels is not considered a crime. Non-Muslim infidels are regarded as not entitled to human rights. Hundreds of thousands of Christians have been raped. Hundreds of thousands of Christian children taken for slaves. In the refugee camps, the Khartoum government requires refugees to become Muslims in order to receive food and water. The genocide has resulted in the largest population of refugees on earth since the Second World War. The jihad in Sudan against Darfur's black African Muslims by Khartoum's racist Arab Muslim regime began in 2003. 75,000 black Muslims are dead. STOP Genocide - STOP Slavery - FREE the Slaves http://www.iheu.org/node/1538/print http://www.iheu.org/node/1539/print http://www.iabolish.org/ Bible, Exodus 21:16 "He who kidnaps a man, whether he sells him or he is found in his possession, shall surely be put to death"

Israel did recieve a lot of foreign aid in its early years and look at the state now. It produces more scientific findings than many countries per capita including, yes, Canada. Israel has become a thirving democratic economy. You really think that foreign aid sent to the PA is used for the same purposes??? Are you serious?