International aid to Gaza will end up with Hamas and… Tehran

Amid a global economic meltdown, high-ranking delegations from 75 countries met at Sharm e-Sheikh Monday, March 2, and approve $5.5 billion for rebuilding the Gaza Strip ravaged during Israel's 22-day anti-terror operation last month.Hillary Clinton will announce at her debut Middle East appearance as secretary of state a $900 million donation: $600 million for the Palestinian Authority, $300 million for Gaza.Germany too is expected to pledge 100 euros in addition to a European Union package, but the primary donors are Arab nations led by Saudi Arabia.Egypt will share the kudos with the Obama administration, which will use the occasion to reassert Washington's role as lead Middle East peacemaker.After they leave the Middle east, their donations will eventually be streamed to three destinations: The Palestinian Authority, Hamas in Gaza and… Tehran.The donors are undecided over where to deposit the funds once they are delivered, understanding that not a cent can be spent on rehabilitating this Palestinian enclave without going through its ruler, Hamas. Some advise depositing the money with Mahmoud Abbas' Palestinian Authority, some suggest the World Bank, others a special mechanism (whose bureaucracy would eat up large sums).The truism that Hamas controls everything that moves in Gaza was amply borne out by the Quartet's envoy Tony Blair. He postponed entering Gaza for months over threats to his life. He finally went in – albeit not too far in – Sunday, March 1 under the protection of an armed Hamas escort.While there, he may well have heard the whistle of the five missiles Hamas and its ilk fired into Israel that day, one destroying an Ashkelon school.For eight years, the Israeli cities, villages and businesses ravaged by Palestinian missiles have been repaired at the expense of the Israeli taxpayer, who turns out ironically to be one of the Gaza donors.Jerusalem has been transferring hundreds of millions of shekels per month to Gaza because the International Monetary Fund's hold Jerusalem responsible for its banks – an anomaly when the US, the EU and World Bank have all agreed that by evacuating the Strip in 2005, Israel had no more responsibility.Blair's demand that Israel lift its embargo on the terrorist-ruled enclave to allow cement and iron to go through because "food and medicines are not enough" is far from innocent.He knows that the cement would be used to fortify Hamas installations and the iron on weapons.By following the donors' money trail, DEBKAfile's sources have found out exactly where the international aid for Gaza ends up: At the corruption-ridden Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, feeding Hamas' military might and paying its armorer, Iran.The pro-West Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad, who is credited with bringing order to Palestinian Authority finances, regularly diverts to the Gaza Strip funds from all PA revenues including donations. Israel and the donor-states agree to their transfer, purportedly to pay the wages of PA officials serving there.Before Hamas' seized the enclave two years ago, 35,000 officers served with the security services; today, allocations are transferred to cover wages for 70,000.Since both figures were fictitious, it does not need a mathematician to figure out that Hamas is using the money as a war chest. Some well-informed Israeli sources have confided to DEBKAfile that had Israel carried out an economic Operation Cast Lead against Hamas, the military operation might have been superfluous...

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