posted on Feb, 15 2009 @ 09:10 PM
I got those numbers from the US Govt. Not too hard to find.
I had heard that Arafat had 500 million, but it is all speculative. Although he received funding from a number of sources, he is still dead. Time
magazine put his personal fortune at death as 11.5 million based on a long international investigation where the French government turned up funds
that were put into a swiss account. He once controlled 3 billion, but much of that was given to the Palestinian Authority and the PLO. before his
death, and more was spent on the Palestinian people. Those figures do not include any European funding, nor the funding Israel receives from jews
around the world. In any case, Palestinians receive a fraction of the funding that Israel does. We were talking about US Govt funding as they are the
biggest foreign funding source in the area. Any funds that the Palestinians receive for the most part go through Israeli approved channels. Indeed
some goes through other sources, but in terms of funding day to day existence, Israel has a hand on those channels. Palestinians do not deal arms to
other nations as they can barely arm themselves. Their homemade rockets are quite small and ineffectual. The dispraportionate use of force, and
collective punishment, are both violations of international law and the Geneva conventions.
Since the Intefada of 1987 up to the Cast Lead offensive of Israel just a short time ago in Gaza, over 1400 Palestinian children have been killed by
Israel. In the same time period, only 18 Israeli children have been killed by Palestinians. That is one example of the dispraportionate use of force
by Israel. Currently the number one cause of death of the Israeli Defense Force..... is suicide. That was reported by Israel. Interesting data
regarding deaths and how they were caused.
Darfur is basically the result of Drought, Oil, Colonial errors, Outside political interests, and Misguided tribal loyalties. Some have pointed out
that genocide is not the correct term as the people fighting each other, the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa tribes are not genetically, nor ethnically
distinct. One can argue the starting point for the Darfur conflict could be traced back as far as the 70's although the common date is the year 2003.
In contrast, Palestinians have been fighting for a homeland for 60 years. Sudan is considered the third most unstable entity in the world after
Gaza/the West Bank and Somalia. The instability of Sudan goes back to colonial days when the British pulled out. Much of Africa is in need of
modernization and that exacerbates the instability problems. Food, clean water, and Healthcare are in short supply for the continent. When outside
influences fight over oil, and political ideologies, have little concern for the locals, and provide arms all around, it is no wonder there is trouble
in the region. Corruption is rampant in the government, and life is cheap on the streets. The US was stretched too thin to provide security forces and
the Europeans were not interested. That left a rag tag force of African nations to try and help out. Weapons pouring in from Russia, China and Israel
by way of France, did not help the problem. There are far too many guns, and not enough people seeking peace.
[edit on 15/2/09 by Terapin]