Elisha Vision – Commentary

 JNN News Update January 20^th 2014

(The following quoted news updates are from Barry Segal, a Jerusalem friend who has a dynamic service to the needy along with his newsletters. Subscribe below.)

NETANYAHU: A JEW-FREE PALESTINIAN STATE WOULD BE ETHNIC CLEANSING: A “Jew-free” Palestinian state, now being contemplated in peace talks, would be tantamount to ethnic cleansing, Israeli PM Netanyahu told Canada’s CTV. While Arabs in Israel have full civic rights, “in the Palestinian state, the way it’s being contemplated, no Jew can live there, it has to be Jew-free, ethnic cleansing. Well, what is that? There are Arabs who live here, but they can’t contemplate Jews living there. It’s absurd that we’re willing to recognize, that I’m willing to recognize the Palestinians, but in exchange, they’re not willing to recognize the Jewish state, the nation state of the Jewish people. There’s something wrong there.” (Algemeiner)

UK PARLIAMENT LAUNCHES INQUIRY INTO FUNDING FOR UNRWA, PALESTINIANS: The British parliament has formed a committee of inquiry to probe the flow of funds used by the international refugee agency UNRWA to support the Palestinians. According to the report, disclosed Saturday, the British government contributes 90 million pounds annually in aid to the Palestinians. A third of that sum is earmarked for UNRWA – the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees. The parliamentary committee, with the encouragement of former Israeli Labor MK Einat Wilf, is due to submit its recommendations soon. “UNRWA is perpetuating the notion that descendants of refugees are themselves refugees, and it is based on this principle that the Palestinians are demanding the right of return, something that will not happen in any future agreement,” Wilf said. “The main point is that UNRWA is entirely supported by Western countries whose official policy is to aim for a two-state solution,” Wilf continued. “This is completely in contradiction to the idea of a right of return for 5 million refugees and their descendants to Israel.” (J.Post)

WHOSE TAXPAYERS FUND UNRWA?: With a total of $644,701,999 in contributions, the US, EU, UK, Sweden, Norway, Germany, The Netherlands and Japan pay 71% of the annual UNRWA budget. The United Nations Relief and Work Agency is the only UN refugee agency dedicated to a single group of people. It is the only agency that designates individuals as original refugees if they lived in the area for a minimum of two years, that acknowledges the descendants of original refugees as refugees as well, and the only one that actively encourages its clients to act on their “right of return.”  The total UNRWA budget for 2012 was $907,907,371. The permanent and hysterically supportive rhetoric for the “Palestinian cause” from the Muslim world might lead one to expect that UNWRA is mainly funded by Muslim countries. The truth, however, is that UNRWA is almost entirely funded by Western taxpayers. With a total of $644,701,999 in contributions, the US, EU, UK, Sweden, Norway, Germany, The Netherlands and Japan pay 71% of the annual UNRWAbudget. So where do the Muslim states rank? First in, at No. 15, is Saudi Arabia. The country with palaces for every prince and gold-plated Boeing 747s on the royal runways chipped in $12,030,540, less than half the contribution of a tiny country like The Netherlands. Second, at No.18, is Turkey. Qatar, which spent millions on obtaining the 2022 soccer World cup, contributed exactly $0 to their Palestinian brothers. These figures reflect the nature of the role Muslim countries play in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. In their rhetoric they are permanently hostile toward Israel and very sympathetic to the Palestinians. Yet, Muslim states do not deliver when it comes to the material needs of the Palestinians. One more fact: The personal wealth of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is estimated at $100 million. Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) reported UNRWA actually helps promotes terrorism and holds Palestinians back from rebuilding their lives. It charged UNRWA schools with becoming hotbeds of anti-Western, anti-American, and antisemitic indoctrination and recruiting offices for terrorist groups. It said also UNWRA facilities are used to store and transport weapons, actually serving as terrorist military bases. When the current conflict is the only reason for the annual welfare check that pays PA leaders, there isn’t much incentive for ending the conflict, either. (J.Post) Pray the truth about the taxpayers funds from Western nations being used to support and further terrorism as well as padding the pockets of PA leaders will come to light. Pray UNRWA will be dismantled and any legitimate needs and responsibilities will be transferred to individuals and committees that can be trusted to carry them out.

CANADIAN MP COTLER CALLS TO DISMANTLE UNRWA: The United Nations Relief and Works Agency should be disbanded, MP and former Canadian justice minister Irwin Cotler demanded last week. “Jurisdiction over the Palestinian refugees should be transferred from UNWRA, which, frankly, continues to engage patterns of incitement against Israel and in misrepresentation of the truth,” Cotler said. He added that the “Arab League should incorporate the question of Jewish refugees as part of its framework for an Israeli- Arab peace in the same way that the Jewish narrative incorporates the Palestinian refugees,” and that the government of Israel insist that in “any and all discussions between the negotiating parties, any reference to Palestinian refugees must also include express reference to Jewish refugees.” It is “high time that the forced exodus of Jews from Arab lands be introduced to the international agenda after the unconscionable neglect of the issue for six decades,” he declared. Cotler called for the end of UNRWA and for recognition and redress for the 850,000 Jewish refugees of the Israeli-Arab conflict. (J.Post)

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Les Lawrence, Voice of Christian Zionists     (READ MORE)