Who could know?

John

UNWRA policy:Don't ask. Don't tell.

Commondog

I bet Fergal Keane and Orla Guerin are fighting to get to this one.

Blue_and_White_Avenger

Interesting, your comment on the US contribution to UNWRA. According to the UNWRA site, the main donors are US, EU, Sweden, Norway & the UK. [maybe the UK pays 2 contribs - 1 in its own right & 2 as part of the EU).
Anyway, I read elsewhere that the Arab states reduced their contribs. over the last 5 years or so from about 8% to <5%. Presumably, they're a bit cash-strapped and feel that their beloved brethren -whom they consigned to UNWRA camps - can manage on western aid.
There's nothing like brotherly love.

Rob

For a bit of comic relief, this reminds me of an old Woody Allen joke. As a child in Brooklyn he was beat up by local bullies. His parents then decided the progressive and international solution would be
to send him to United Nations summer camp. It was a wonderful experience, he said. Now he got beat up by kids of all races, creeds and colours.

Commondog

Rob

Made me chuckle. The Benetton Bullies.

Blue & White A.

Reason Arab states so cash-strapped is the fact they're funding so many 'architectural projects' across the UK.

Archie Bruce

This should serve as an indicator of the value of comments made by any U.N. functionaries working in Gaza and the West Bank who rely on the advice of their employees many of who are possibly in the same position as Awad al-Qiq.

Oriane

Does anyone take this rubbish that Melanie Phillips churns out seriously?

Dorian Hack

Oriane - lets see, what kind of a name is that. More importantly where does it come from.Somewhere from euro-dingbat land maybe or possibly out of space.
Get a grip girlie and take a gulp of reality - it won't hurt, really. White Kuffar in Africa

Shy Guy

Oriane
May 7th, 2008 8:46am

Does anyone take this rubbish that Melanie Phillips churns out seriously?

Wow! What an intellectually challenging question!

/sarc

Peter Thomas

To Oriane - I have long held the view that the liberal left must be totally blind (as you appear to be) to history and evidence. It's the only way I can explain their attitude.
So it's OK for UNWRA to be colluding with terrorists is it - or are Reuters spreading lies?

Jimmyjazz

Oriane - Yes we do and more and more people will take it seriously unless you can begin to argue against it. Your response is the typical denialist response - attacking the messanger rather than dealing with the argument.

Michael B

Vapid anonymities, such as "Oriane" in this thread, do themselves a favor in remaining anonymous and do us a favor in advertising themselves for precisely what they are: effusive wastrels whose moral depth and intellectual capacity registers as a nullibiety - and proudly so.

In some appreciable sense, surely we live in a low age, for such incapacious self-regard, willing to proudly advertise itself, is not rare and is not found merely at the periphery of things, but instead is common and often enough is found right at the very heart of things.

Tina

"Does anyone take this rubbish that Melanie Phillips churns out seriously?"

No, Oriane, that's why we have 2,000 terrorist suspects waltzing round the country with virtual impunity and our underground lines overflowing with blood.

Wonderful, isn't it?

Water

I’m with the Greeks in that it is but mere impertinence to but advertise the rarest of vintages. Then again by virtue of this occasion I wouldn’t class Oriane as a rare vintage. But then again maybe that is her real name.

Water

Then again anonymity is something often associated with the word spectator.

Terry

UNWRA should be wound up. There aren't any true refugees for them to look after. They have been at the forfront of maintaining and perpetuating the myth of pretend pali nationhood. The pretend palis aren't interested in creating a state, merely in destroying someone else's state. The 'peace process' (an oxymoron if ever thre was!) would best be served by relocating the pretend pali population in arab states, where they largely came from and now belong.

Phil

oriane only someone with brains

Jordan

I respect this article, but we knew the UN was a joke even before it existed (League of Nations). I mean, it's built on corruption, powered by corruption and usual politics. It's a bureaucratic mess that is open to, what Melanie would said "[the] Red-Black Alliance".

paul quite-tall

Sloppy as usual Ms Phillips, a cursory search shows that Islamic Jihad is not the same as Hamas, whom you wish to discredit. So which is it ?
On the substance, "UN...club of terror" the usual idiotic hyperbole serving no purpose. Is the fact that UNWRA did not know about the bomb-maker any more shocking than the US Navy not knowing that Jonathan Pollard was spying for Israel against the US ? Did you or anybody make calls then that the enormous US subsidy to Israel ($100bn and counting) be terminated ?
Thought not.

Stanislav Koblinski

"paul quite-tall"

Nowhere does Melanie say that Islamic Jihad "is the same as Hamas".

What is so obvious that it really shouldn't have to be explained is that Hamas controls everything that happens in Gaza. We all saw how members of Fateh were thrown from high buildings or summarily shot in public. If Hamas didn't want Islamic Jihad to operate in Gaza it wouldn't. Islamic Jihad builds and fires rockets at Israel and Hamas often claims responsibility.

That is why Melanie mentions Hamas.

How many times have you heard several groups all claim "credit" for attacks?

Every time you post a comment you demonstrate the depth of your ignorance. Why bother?

Hondo

As usual ,Melanie Philips writes a lot of rubbish.
Whatever one may have to say and should say about Iran,can anybody explain why that country should nor go nuclear, when it has a neighbour to all countries of the region, when it is being constantly being threatened and provoked by the US, and Europe too, and this has been going on since Mossadegh, with some respite only under the shameful and dictatorial rule of Palahvi?
Actually the US, with their poodles in Europe and elsewhere, are dangerously threatening the entire world to an extent unknown even during the Nazi period, and yet, according to Phillips, the menace comes from Iran.That woman is either out of her mind or acting with breathtaking bad faith
She even has the nerve of suggesting regime change;just imagine for a moment what outcry there would be if there were to be a plea in favour of regime change in the US, where the cops have the right to murder people, where the President has the right to be a moron, where most have the right to be denied the right to education and health care, out of consideration for the millions of beleagueres in that country created through theft, looting, plunder, genocide, slavey , segregation, just like Israel by the way.

Hondo

You won't publish this;well this only goes to show how democratic you can be and hostile to truth.

phil

I see little paul is making his usual silly comments .who cares about the difference between Islamic jihad ,hamas or hezbollah-?they are all killing machines and seem not to care who they kill -see Beirut now and even themselves -they are all homicidal maniacs who do not even care for their own let alone the Israelis-why does this person keep posting garbage and think anyone will be impressed?

Hondo what a bad surprise for you .it was published !!not that it would have been in Iran et al -we show what nonsense people can write regardless