Scam of Fatah, Hamas Contention Validated by Olmert Funds Transfer Which PA Paid to Hamas

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Commentary;

The scamming of Israel by Mahmoud Abbas is to be expected. But can feigned ignorance by Olmert regarding the potential for scam, both with regard to the transfer of millions of USD in previously frozen tax transfers and the release and amnesty given hundreds of former PA terror prisoners be seen as complicit in the entire scam regarding these “gestures” to Abbas knowing full well the Abbas, Fatah, Hamas track-record??

For more background on this report, click Civil Fights: Surreal Diplomacy, by Evelyn Gordon which is a MUST-READ! MB

Fatah Uses Funds Transferred by Olmert to Pay 3,500 Hamas Men, by Ezra HaLevi (Israel National News)

Excerpts;

The US and Israel-backed Fatah Palestinian Authority used the money it received to pay an entire year’s salary to 3,500 members of Hamas’s terrorist forces.

Fatah claimed the payment – amounting to $16 million – was wired “accidentally.” The claim was believed and reported at face-value by the Associated Press (“Abbas’ gov’t inadvertently pays salaries to outlawed Hamas militia”) and other international news agencies. Not passing the money to Hamas was the only stipulation set by Israel in transferring the money to the PA.

Hamas officials in Gaza confirmed that they had received the payment, telling the PA-run Ma’an News Agency that 3,500 Hamas “operational forces” had received salaries covering the year from June 2006 to June 2007.

Salam Fayyad, formerly PA Finance Minister, was appointed by Fatah chief and PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas as prime minister following Hamas’s takeover of Gaza, due to the US and Israel’s reliance on him to refrain from mismanaging and funneling money the way Yasser Arafat’s regime was notorious for doing. The latest funneling of millions to Hamas casts substantial doubt on Fayyad’s trustworthiness in this regard.

Fatah officials claim a “computer error” was responsible and that the Bank of Palestine was ordered to withdraw the deposited funds. Most Hamas members had already withdrawn the money, however.