Expulsion Cost $2 Billion–So Far
Full Text;
A Finance Ministry official has revealed that the cost of the expulsion program has cost $2 billion and will rise. “The costs just keep mounting,” said deputy budget director Harel Belinda. He also described the problem of unemployment among the expulsion victims as a “ticking bomb.”
The plight of the former Gaza region and northern Samaria residents is exacerbated by the government’s fear of submitting amendments because factions on the right and left would try to change the law. “The government will have to withdraw the law if any changes proposed by MKs are made to it. This would be catastrophic for us since we’ll find ourselves helpless in the face of the distress of the evacuees,” warned Ra’anan Dinur, director general of the office of the Prime Minister.
The government has tried to lower the estimated cost of further expulsions. Some coalition leaders have stated the cost would only be $10 billion and not the more than $50 billion that most observes estimate. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s plan for unilateral withdrawals does not state the source of the funding.
Commentary;
Ricky Watters was a highly touted Free Agent Running Back when he came
with a huge price tag to the Philadelphia Eagles in the 1995 Fottball season.
But in the first week of the season, he dropped two critical passes because he heard the patter of footsteps — of 280 lb plus behemoths about to hit him when he caught the ball. And when the MSMs finest asked him after the game how it was that he dropped these 2 passes, his retort was “For Who, For What?”
The price tag so far for the expulsion from Gush Katif: $USD 2 billion. This author asks, “For Who, For What?” The Refugees have not been compensated for their property and asset losses, most have not been re-employed or re-settled. $USD 2 billion: For Who, For What?”
And Olmert won’t get funds from any outside source for either the expulsion from Gush Katif or any other “convergence”, “consolidation” or “realignment”
that he says “can’t be stopped.” President Bush already made this fact of life perfectly clear to him. MB