Helping Palestinians was an uphill battle for US aid chief. Humanity Party® counters with the only solution: fight poverty and end religious dispute over land
July 15, 2016 |
| 8 min read
This report is about what the U.S. government’s aid efforts have done to create peace between the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza Strip and Israel.
The gist of the report: Nothing’s been done.
The bright spot of the report explains how in 2007,
(NOTE: All bold excerpts relate to economics.)
“[U.S.] helped convince hesitant Israeli military officials to allow Palestinian merchants in Jenin to export goods to Israel and abroad. USAID invested nearly $10 million in security scanners and upgrades to the Israeli-manned entrance and exit into the city to ensure it was secure. [U.S. said it] negotiated with Israel to allow its Arab citizens to come to Jenin for weekend shopping sprees, what [the U.S.] called “a very big psychological deal for the Israelis.”
[The U.S.] estimated that this led to a $230 million economic boost in the city. [The U.S.] also believes the boost has contributed to the low number of Palestinians from the Jenin area who have carried out attacks against Israelis during the current 10-month wave of violence. [The U.S.] said [it] hoped the Jenin example could be replicated for other West Bank cities.”
There is little doubt, IF reported by any reputable source that has investigated the situation thoroughly and lived among the people of Palestine, that economic development greatly reduces terrorism. When the young men have something to do, a job that generates income that they value and that values them, they are less likely to join a fanatical religious movement in search for personal self-worth and value. These young people do not want to die. They want to live. But they want to live for something that brings them personal value and worth.
There are two significant ways that most people gain self-worth: 1) what they own; and 2) what they believe. As is and has been the case throughout the history of the human race, poverty and fanatical religious belief go hand in hand, and will continue to exist unless one of the two is eliminated. And it’s much easier to eliminate poverty than it is to eliminate religion. Religion will be a part of human nature as long as human nature exists. Poverty does not need to exist.
The Palestinian youth do not understand politics. They do not know that the U.S. is investing money into their region (although VERY INAPPROPRIATELY) in an effort to help them. Why don’t they know this? Because the U.S. does not act in that region of the world without the permission and backing of its closest ally, Israel. This fact is pounded into the minds of the economically depressed youth every time they attend a meeting where Allah and Islam are touted as the only answer to their lack of self-worth and hopelessness.
Furthermore, bringing in U.S. (and other countries’) products and hiring foreign contractors (with all the foreign employees that the contractor needs) does nothing to build a local economic infrastructure that will provide permanent jobs and economic stability in the area and for the people for which the aid was intended. The systems and political solutions of throwing money at the problem through private, government, or any other type of charitable donations, have never worked to solve poverty.
The youth of the world, especially Muslim young men who are valued by what they (the males) contribute to their family and community, don’t want another “man” to give them charity, because in doing so, the “other man” (in this case the U.S. led sources of international aid) gets all the value and credit. The men want jobs that they feel give them self-worth and value!
Here is what the Humanity Party® proposes:
THumP®’s proposed New Constitution for the United States (Republic of America) includes a law that allows any people, anywhere in the world to become part of the American Republic, which would then offer these people all the legal opportunity and security to pursue this opportunity that Americans are offered. [Editor’s note: THumP®‘s New Constitution for the Republic of America has been replaced by our proposal for a Worldwide Constitution.]
The United States gives as much financial support to many different people throughout the world as it does to its own States. Why shouldn’t, then, why can’t, the people who are receiving Federal aid be treated by the Federal government similar to how the citizens of the U.S. States are treated, which includes protecting the people’s rights under Constitutional law?
First, the people have to choose to become part of the Republic through legal, fair, and verifiable elections. This part is from THumP®’s proposals, ARTICLE I, Section 9, subsection i:
(Under the powers granted to Congress:)
Power to Allow Other Nations to Become Part of the Republic of America. TO extend the boundaries of the Republic and the protection of its laws to any foreign nation or entity, whose people, by the majority of their individual votes, desire to become part of the Republic. Any application to become part of the Republic must be made to Congress by the voice of the majority of that foreign people through lawful and congressionally verified election results; TO support the implementation of American law in any part of the world where the Republic holds authority and jurisdiction by the will of the people of that area.
What if the people of the West Bank and Gaza Strip voted to join the U.S. as a couple of its States? Not only will the people be granted freedom of religious persecution (ostensibly), but the legalization of these areas as U.S. States would open up the scrutiny of and allow the Federal government to control how its aid is used. Presently, the U.S. Government places strict requirements on its States in exchange for the use of Federal money. And there is NO U.S. State that does not depend on Federal aid to perform its fiduciary duties to the people living in a State. No U.S. State can financially exist on its own.
The U.S. has little control over much of the aid it gives to other countries. In fact, the aid it does give usually ends up in the hands of a few, more often than not, in the hands of foreign identities not directly associated with the local people.
Although the proposal for statehood for the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, or any other group of people who are economically and religiously oppressed, might seem unrealistic (thus used by THumP® hypothetically), why couldn’t the U.S. demand that no one but the local people gain from the aid? Why not mandate that all work that needs to be done in that area MUST be done by local companies, local contractors, local employers with local employees? Why not mandate that all materials and services needed to accomplish the intent of the aid MUST come from the local area?
Some might argue that this can’t work because many of the basic materials to build infrastructure are not available locally and must come from foreign companies. This is true, but does not mean that a local person can’t setup West Bank Steel, Inc., and then become responsible for the steel that is imported into the country, it’s warehousing and distribution to the local contractors who need it. If a foreign contractor is hired to do the work, that contractor has the steel (in this example) shipped directly to the contractor, bypassing the local economy altogether.
The solution is easy: STOP ALL INAPPROPRIATE AID TO ECONOMICALLY DEPRESSED AREAS. Help the local people set up companies that provide the goods and services that the people receive, just like Capitalism and the Free Market works in the West. Do NOT lend the people money and put them in debt. GIVE THEM THE MONEY, with the only strings attached being those that ensure the money is only used in the local economy.
But first, the people must have the money to buy products. To get it started, provide the people with the money that they need to purchase the basic necessities of life. Then restrict this money to local use; mandating that the money cannot be spent outside of the local economy. If a foreign investor wants to make money, by taking the money from the people who now have some in their pockets for their basic life necessities, that investor will be forced to hire local workers to build a local warehouse, to staff that local warehouse, and provide the goods or services to the local people.
Foreign donations from charities, religions, and the unregulated misuse of aid is the underlying reason that poverty continues, which leads to terrorism. The young men who become terrorists have no hope in obtaining any value in life except what their local families receive in accolade for their death as a martyr.
Give the youth another source of value. Give them a job.
THumP® has the solutions. No one else does.®
