When it comes to pure, unmitigated gall, you really can't beat the Palestinian Authority.
They just issued a blanket cancellation to all residents of all past due debts owed for electricity.
The Palestinian Authority announced on Wednesday that it is cancelling outstanding electricity debts for each West Bank resident, on the heels of a deal that aims to help assuage the electricity companies' own arrears.
Government spokeswoman Nour Oudeh told Ma’an that all residential bills owed until Dec. 31, 2012 will be canceled. Businesses and people facing investigation for electricity theft will not be included in the deal.
Now here's the fun part.The Palestinian Authority receives all of its electricity from- wait for it - Israel!
The article briefly alludes to this, explaining that the unpaid bills outstanding totaled about $100 million, the sum the Israeli government transferred to the Israeli electricity supplier out of tax and customs duties collected for the PA by Israel.
So let's reiterate - the PA is cancelling bills owed to someone else with money it doesn't have and taking credit for it as a goodwill gesture!
Of course, the real suckers are those people that actually paid their bills. The PA simply pocketed that money and never remitted it to Israel as they had agreed to do.
It's worth noting that most of what passes for infrastructure in the Arab occupied areas of Judea and Samaria was built by Israel after the Six Day War. Aside from totally revamping the power grid, the sewage system, the roads, schools, hospitals,Bir Zeit University, even parks and zoos, the Israelis supply almost all of the PA's water and electricity.
Needless to say, they never gotten so much as a cursory acknowledgement for any of it.
After the way the Palestinian Authority has behaved, I think it might be simple justice for Israel to simply turn off the juice and the tap and let the Palestinians negotiate something with say, Jordan to fulfill their needs.
I'm sure their Arab brothers will treat them with the same compassion they always have.
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