http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=1343
David M. Weinberg Ready for statehood?
The Palestinians keep telling us and insisting to every international interlocutor that they are ready for statehood, and supposedly this means a Palestinian state at peace with Israel.Well, I wonder – on both accounts.
The Palestinian government(s) I see are far from being “ready” for statehood or peace with Israel, for reasons that range from impotency to insolvency and raw anti-Semitism.
Let’s start with impotency. Faced with riots and death threats, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad this week was forced to shelve his plan to actually tax PA businessmen. Why should Palestinian stock market profits, real estate deals and civil service salaries be taxed? Why should 26,000 of the over 150,000 redundant civil servants and security personnel currently on the PA payroll be eased into early retirement? Why? Because the PA has a budget deficit of over $1 billion and almost no self-generated income?
So what?! The international community will continue to pay.