Monday May 22, 2006

Column:

Do you scratch your head and wonder why everything in the Muslim world seems to be upside down and backwards first? Stop scratching. The first step in the process of understanding the Muslim world is for Western-trained minds and Western-sensitive sensibilities to accept the fact that in the Muslim world things run on a different track and to Western thinking, that track definitely runs upside down and backwards first. That's the way it is, was and will probably continue to be in the Muslim world. Especially in the world of the Palestinian Authority.

Take, for example, The Tale of the Monied Belt at the Rafah Crossing. It's not a tall tale, certainly not a fairy tale - though it might one day be retold as such - it's a true tale of the creeping deceit and crumbling decline of the Hamas-run Palestinian Authority.

The tale unfolds as a spokesperson for the Hamas Palestinian Authority is routinely stopped as he passes from Egypt into Gaza at the Rafah Border Crossing. Whoops, thump, thud, something falls to the ground. Something heavy, very heavy.

The check point itself is a study in world diplomacy and distrust. The guards at the gate are a mix of Fatah Palestinians and European Union border agents. Israelis are there, but unseen, in an inside room viewing the procession, entries and exits, on closed circuit cameras.

The Hamas spokesman, Sami Hamad Zuhari, has dropped a belt, a very heavy belt. This particular belt is filled with money, anywhere between 620,000 to 800,000 euros, the accounts vary. By any estimate it is a lot of money, at minimum $850,000 US, at maximum just over 1,000,000 United States dollars.

One insightful follower of the happenings within the Palestinian Authority has quipped that Hamas youth strap bomb belts to themselves, while their leaders strap on money belts.
The international agreements stipulate that anyone bringing in more than $2,000 must inform the authorities twenty-four hours in advance and explain from where the money comes. This is all done in order to prevent money laundering. It is done because the international community fears - correctly - that the Palestinian Authority will become a world center for mafia and drug lords, for blood diamonds and for anything and everything else contraband that needs to be cleaned up and laundered and launched back into the world.

Zuhari, Hamas spokesperson that he is, has skipped the step about notice and accountability. He has not intended for anyone at the border to know about the thousands/million he has acquired, not only how much money he has but even that he has any money at all. He drops his belt accidentally, the border patrol picks it up intentionally.

Wrong time, wrong place, major blunder. Zuhari claims the money is from "friends" that it is intended to "help" the Palestinian Authority. The guards say, "hmmm." The guards say "finders, keepers." The guards put Zuhari in holding and confiscate the money.

And when word gets out that the money is gone and Zuhari is being detained at the border, Hamas springs into action. Rather than pick up the phone and try to iron things out, rather than send another representative immediately over to the border to broker a deal the cavalry is called in to intercede.

Hamas gunmen come to free the money, oh, and also Zurahi.

But this time the border people stand their ground. This time? Yes, this time. Smuggling money through Rafah into Gaza is not an unknown phenomenon. There was another incident, much like this incident, when there was a problem at the border crossing. And that time, much like this times, Hamas activists came to intimidate the Fatah Palestinians and European Union border personnel. That time it worked. The border people fled, abandoning their positions. And Hamas and other Palestinians took bulldozers and destroyed the border crossing, permitting anyone carrying anything to cross at will.

This time, Zurahi is - eventually, let go. But without the money.

Where does this money come from? Zuhari was returning from a trip to Qatar. Qatar had pledged 50 million US dollars to the Palestinians. Logic dictates that Qatar probably fulfilled the pledge with a direct transfer of money wrapped up in a belt to be directly, discreetly, delivered to Hamas coffers in Palestinian Authority accounts to pay the salaries of the 165,000 Palestinian government employees who have not been paid in a long, long while.

Fascinating? You ain't heard nothing yet. The first time Yasser Arafat came to the United States for monetary aid and assistance, soon after he returned to Ramallah after his exile in Tunis, he arrived in Washington D.C. carrying empty suitcases. That's how he thought he would take home the money - cold cash stashed in suitcases.

Why? Why was Sami Hadad Zuhari, an official representative of the ruling Hamas party not allowed to take the money and leave? Why was he not permitted to pick up his belt, stand tall and march over the border into Gaza? Why? Because the European Union Guards at the Rafah Border Crossing are playing by the internationally dictated rules.

And because the Fatah Palestinian guards at the Rafah Border Crossing know that Zuhari will not play by the rules. They know. They know Hamas.

That's the end of this tale. It may soon, also, be the end of the Hamas-run Palestinian Authority.