A London newspaper report of a  European Union audit citing gross corruption in the Palestinian Authority is the latest, but not the last, exposure of a PA regime that is a decaying creature living on borrowed time.

In August, the United States signed a $148 million agreement with the Palestinian Authority to support the budget in Ramallah.

U.S. Consul General Michael Ratney stressed how much the Obama administration supports Abbas government in order to strengthen its institutions, all part of the master plan to show that the Palestinian Authority functions as a state. All it needs, according to the U.S. State Dept., is the stamp of approval that it is a country.

The very idea of creating a new Arab state within Israel’s current borders is a dream for President Barack Obama, so he had no trouble in August to waive restrictions set by Congress to send more tax dollars to Ramallah,  part of a prize for resuming the so-called peace talks that are rapidly on their way to joining previous discussions in the grave from which they were exhumed in July.

Shortly after the U.S. aid, France and the Palestinian Authority signed a $15 million agreement to bail out Abbas’ depleted coffers, which have a bottom line of approximately minus $500 million.

Hamdallah then met EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, one of Israel’s biggest thorns in the you know where, to ask for more money.

When it comes to schooring, Abbas has it all over the Jews.

As usual, the PA says it needs money because Israel is choking it as well as Gaza with the famous siege that does not exist., except for that which the Egyptian military regime has imposed. But  that does not count since it is not part of the Zionist lobby.

Make no mistake about it, says Abbas. “Israel exploits our resources and lands which directly leads to an increase in the deficit which we must contend with,” and “the central reason for this is the Israeli occupation.”

That is the magic code word for Abbas to get whatever he wants. If there is not enough rain, it is because of the occupation. If it is Tuesday and not Wednesday, it is because of the occupation.

Now it is October. It’s salary time again, and guess what? Palestinian Authority  Finance Minister Shukri Bishara told Abbas it has no money to pay its workers, who officially comprise nearly 8 percent of the total population in Judea and Samaria, but in fact the number is far larger.

It has been reported year after that the Palestinian Authority is a welfare state and that it cannot exist on its own.

Anyone who simply travels through Judea and Samaria can see for himself huge villas and thousands of luxury cars. What people don’t see, or don’t want to see, is that many of those homes and cars were paid for by the billions of dollars a year that are controlled by officials who make Congressmen’s pork barrel look like small potatoes.

The Times of London revealed Sunday that a European Union audit shows that corruption and mismanagement managed to waste about $2 billion, which is three or four times the annual deficit and also is nearly equal to the total amount of money the EU has given to the Palestinian Authority in the four-year period ending last year.

This is no news to Palestinian Authority Arabs. The EU auditors could have saved themselves a lot of work and trouble if they simply had asked the local Arabs, just like pollsters did last year, when they discovered that an overwhelming 71 percent of Arabs believe that there is corruption in their government.

In order to boost the confidence of Abbas to remain corrupt, Uncle Sam will pay out approximately $440 million to Ramallah this years, which is less than the $513.4 million doled out last year but still $440 million more than zero, not including support for UNRWA.

Aid to Israel is in the billions, but a large part of it is funneled right back into the United States for purchases of Made in USA defense components.

In the case of the Palestinian Authority, the only money that goes back into the coffers of the United States is that which Abbas forks over in restaurants when schnooring in Washington.

Noam Glick (Noam bat Michal), the 9 year old girl shot in the Psagot terror attack on Saturday night, is currently listed in an improved light to medium condition following her surgery at Sha’arei Tzedek hospital.

Doctors were initially unsure if she was stabbed or shot based on her wounds. But with the discovery of the improvised gun that appears to have been used to shoot her in the shoulder/neck and through the back, it is clear why the weapon type was not immediately clear.

At one point, residents of the town reported that the terrorist was captured, but the IDF is currently stating that the terrorist escaped into a nearby village.

Residents of the “Nof” neighborhood of Beit El found themselves under a barrage of stones this evening as they were outside building their Sukkahs.

The Arab assailants were very surprised to discover that these Beit El residents weren’t very passive when it came to responding to the Arab attacks. The Beit El residents quickly reacted, damaging the vehicles of the assailants.

In other stone throwing incidents today, Arabs threw a rock into an oncoming car near Ramallah. There were no injuries in that attack.

There were also quite a number of other stone throwing incidents today near Hebron, Afikim, Itamar, Efrat, Beit El, Mevoh Dotan, El Hadr, and along Road 60. Vehicles were damaged in some of the attacks.

Reports for HaKol Hayudi were used in this report.

A new oil discovery in southern Israel might turn out to be the catalyst for an internal and self-destructive war in the Palestinian Authority, with Hamas in Gaza and chairman Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah likely to claim ownership of a new Israeli offshore oil discovery near Ashdod.

When the Tamar and Leviathan gas and oil fields off the Haifa and Hadera coast, in northern Israel, were discovered, Lebanon and Hezbollah quickly claimed that energy reserves were in their territorial waters.

The oil and gas reserves are clearly within Israel’s territorial waters, but the fields could extend as far as the waters off the Lebanese coast.

Lebanon warned the American Noble Energy company not to approach its territory, and Hezbollah it would go to war over the oil and gas fields. Since then, Israel has brought gas into production, and Lebanon and Hezbollah have kept quiet, partly because the United States has mediated by proposing a boundary between Lebanon and Israel’s maritime economic zones.

Now comes the Israeli Shemen Oil and Gas Company which reported on Saturday indications of  “high quality of oil”  following offfshore drilling at its Yam-3 well, 10 miles from the southern port city of Ashdod, located only a few miles north of Gaza.

The drilling reached a depth of 19,000 feet undersea, but the possibility of commercial production awaits further tests.

“This is good news for Shemen but it is still too early to pop the champagne,” Noam Pincu, an analyst at Psagot Investment House Ltd. in Tel Aviv, told Bloomberg News. “We have to see the results of the production tests to estimate the quantities and quality of oil at the site.”

It still is not clear from the drilling report how thick the reservoir is and how much much oil could be commercially produced. Analysts said it could be only a few barrels a day or it could be several hundred a day, which would bring in millions of dollars.

If the Yam 3 well turns to be commercially viable, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu might be able to relax at U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s peace talks and let Fatah and Hamas knock each other out.

Hamas and its rival Fatah movement likely would be at each other’s throats, literally, to claim that Israel is “stealing” the reserves from them.

Abbas was head of all of the Palestinian Authority in Judea and Samaria as well as Gaza until Hamas completed a bloody military coup six years ago. Abbas dissolved the Fatah-Hams coalition government and declared himself as ruler of Gaza by presidential decree, which Hamas correctly terms as “worthless.”

Abbas and Hamas de facto prime minister Ismail Haniyeh have since failed to carry out several declarations of unity.

All it will take is a few barrels of oil near Gaza’s waters for both leaders to draw their knives and guns for energy reserves that are so close to Gaza that Haniyeh and Abbas can claim that Israel is “stealing” them by drilling diagonally into Gaza waters.

Both Ramallah and Gaza City are in serious trouble financially. Egypt’s new war on terror in the Sinai has choked off the flow of commercial goods through the border at Rafiah, and Abbas is totally dependent on the economically ailing European Union, to stave off bankruptcy.

Two Arabs from areas of Jerusalem claimed by the Palestinian Authority were preparing to kill Jews during the High Holiday season by blowing up Jerusalem’s luxurious Mamilla Mall where they worked, authorities revealed Sunday after a gag order was lifted.

The two terrorists, in their 20s, were affiliated with a Hamas cell in Ramallah, headquarters of PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas. The head of the terrorist cell was Ramallah resident Hamdi Romana, who maintained an explosives lab  in his home. The cell also planned to manufacture and fire missiles from Ramallah and kidnap Israeli soldiers.

If you listen to the Obama administration, Abbas his fulfilling his commitment to eliminate the terrorist infrastructure in the Palestinian Authority, and if you read this, you know that it is Israel that arrests most heavy duty terrorists.

The two Arabs expressed their anger for the humiliation of having to work for Jews by plotting to plant explosives at the shopping complex, located across the street from the Old City.

The two Arabs are from the neighborhood of Shuafat, located next to the Haredi Ramat Shlomo area, and Ras al-Amud, where the Jews live in the neighborhood of Maaleh Zeitim. Both Jewish areas are considered “settlements” by the Obama administration.

According to the “Peace Process” theory, Israel is blocking economic growth in the Palestinian Authority because of checkpoints and searches.

That theory goes down the drain in the mall bomb plot because there are no checkpoints in Ras al-Amud or Shuafat. Both areas are under the administration of the Municipality of Jerusalem.

All residents are able to take out Israeli citizenship and carry Israeli identity cards.

One of dozens of factors that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his Council of Sages do not take into account is that if the Palestinian Authority were to include area of Jerusalem former occupied by Jordan, it is doubtful that the Arabs would want to give up their benefits they enjoy from Israel.

Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid has barred five party lawmakers from meeting in Ramallah with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas , who had invited them to a toast in honor of Rosh HaShanah.

The five lawmakers withdrew their acceptance of the invitation, according to the newspaper.

Lapid ordered the withdrawal because it could prejudice the work of the Israeli and Palestinian Authority negotiating teams, which have met three times in the last three weeks for renewed peace talks, according to reports.

Abbas’ invitation came after a goodwill meeting held last month at the Knesset attended by Israeli lawmakers and PA representatives chosen by Abbas.

The Palestinian Authority cancelled the ‘peace’ talks that were to take place on Monday, August 26.  The PA cancelled Monday’s scheduled talks because three Arab Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces who had been ambushed in an Arab town.

The Arab Palestinian version of events is that the Israeli Defense Forces shot and killed three young Arab Palestinians.  That is also the story being told by most major media outlets.

The reality is that IDF troops entered the Arab Palestinian town of Qalandriya before dawn Monday morning, in search of a terror suspect.  Somehow their cover was blown and when residents of the town learned that Israeli soldiers were in their midst, it became open season on the IDF soldiers.

According to a Border Police spokesperson, upon hearing of the IDF presence “1,500 Palestinians poured into the streets and attacked the officers with firebombs and rocks.”

As reported earlier by The Jewish Press, police testimony regarding the incident revealed that the confrontation between the villagers and the IDF posed a “real and present danger” to the lives of the troops.  “An initial investigation revealed that the officers used riot dispersal means, including the Roger rifle, which fires ammunition at lower and thus less dangerous speeds.”

“The meeting that was to take place in Jericho … today was cancelled because of the Israeli crime committed in Qalandia today,” an Arab Palestinian official told AFP.

Rovin Fayez Zaed, 35, and Younis Jahjouh, 23, were pronounced dead at a Ramallah hospital. Jihad Aslan, 17, died from his wounds shortly thereafter, and approximately a dozen were wounded.

The Jewish Press reported that Jahjouh was released from prison as part of the 2011 Shalit deal.

The IDF’s Spokesperson’s Unit said that, “during an overnight operation for the arrest of a suspect in Qalandiya, a riot involving hundreds of Palestinians who attacked the security forces erupted. Early details suggest that an IDF force supporting the troops was trying to rescue them and that fire was opened at the assailants when the situation became life threatening.”

The IDF further noted that the suspect, a terrorist, was arrested and turned over for questioning with security forces. “The circumstances behind the incident will be investigated.”

PLO official Hanan Ashrawi strongly denounced Israel’s incursion into the camp, the Arab Palestinian media outlet Ma’an reported.

“Israel’s use of excessive and indiscriminate violence and live ammunition in densely populated civilian areas represents a blatant violation of international and humanitarian law.”

A video of the response by villagers upon learning of the presence of Israelis in Qalandriya reveals what Ms. Ashrawi would have the world believe was a peaceful village of Arabs who were attacked by Israeli soldiers, with no provocation.

Despite unequivocal statements from Arab leadership, the U.S. State Department denied that the talks were cancelled.  Spokesperson Marie Harf told reporters, “I can assure you that no meeting has been cancelled.”

Originally published at the Gatestone Institute.

At the request of the Palestinian Authority leadership, the first round of peace talks with Israel, which was launched in Jerusalem on August 14, was held away from the media spotlight.

The Palestinian Authority leadership requested that no journalist or photographer be permitted to cover the meeting between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators.

Even the location of the peace talks was kept a secret, again at the request of the Palestinian Authority leadership.

The Palestinian Authority’s request for secrecy in the peace talks does not stem from its desire to secure the success of the negotiations.

It is not as if the Palestinian Authority is saying: We care so much about the peace talks that we prefer to avoid media coverage in order to make sure that the peace process succeeds.

The main reason the Palestinian Authority does not want the media to cover the peace talks is related to its fear of the reactions of Palestinians and the Arab world.

Mahmoud Abbas is already facing widespread opposition among Palestinians to his controversial decision — which was taken under heavy pressure from US Secretary of State John Kerry — to return to the negotiating table with Israel.

When the heads of the Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams, Tzipi Livni and Saeb Erekat, met in Washington earlier this month to announce the launching of the peace talks, many Palestinians and Arabs seized the opportunity to ridicule Erekat and accuse the Palestinian Authority leadership of treason.

A photo of Erekat and Livni standing together in Washington has since been exploited by Facebook and Twitter activists to hurl insults and profanity at the chief Palestinian negotiator.

Palestinian sources in Ramallah said that Erekat felt so offended by the insults and obscene language directed against him that he decided that there was no need for “photo op” with Livni or any other Israeli.

Both Abbas and Erekat are fully aware of the growing opposition among Palestinians and Arabs to the resumption of the peace talks with Israel under the terms of the US Administration.

That is why the two men do not want to be seen sitting in a room with any Israeli representative. They know that any photo of Erekat and Livni shaking hands or sitting together would provide their enemies with additional ammunition.

Those who think that the opposition to the peace talks is coming only from Hamas and other radical groups are either ignorant or turning a blind eye to the reality.

When Abbas agreed to resume the peace talks with Israel, he went against the recommendation of the PLO leadership, whose members rejected Kerry’s attempts to force the Palestinian Authority president to abandon two of his pre-conditions — namely, that Israel accept the pre-1967 lines as the basis for negotiations and freeze all construction in settlements and east Jerusalem neighborhoods.

Last week, the PLO officials once again reminded Abbas of their opposition to the peace talks.

During an August 15 meeting in Ramallah, several PLO leaders told Abbas that they remained opposed “in principle” to the idea of resuming peace talks with Israel under the current circumstances.

The only Palestinian official who has come out in public to voice support for Abbas’s move is the powerless Prime Minister, Rami Hamdallah.

Abbas and Erekat know that Hamdallah’s public endorsement of the peace talks does not carry any weight. After all, Hamdallah is an unelected public servant with no grassroots support or political base.

To further complicate matters for Abbas and Erekat, several Palestinian factions are now in the process of forming a “national alliance” the main goal of which is to thwart any deal between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. This rejectionist front will consist of various PLO and other factions and organizations and could create many problems for the Palestinian Authority.

But there is another reason why the Palestinian Authority leadership does not want media coverage of the peace talks. For many years, the Palestinian Authority has been supporting boycott campaigns against Israel, as well as organizations combating “normalization” with Israelis.

If Palestinian children are condemned for playing football with Israelis, why should it be acceptable for Erekat to be talking with Livni?

Palestinian Authority leaders can only blame themselves for the growing opposition to the peace talks with Israel. Palestinian leaders have simply not prepared their people for peace. These leaders have, instead, delegitimized Israel to a point where it has become a “crime” for any Palestinian to be photographed talking to, or negotiating with, any Israeli.