The FT reports that in 1996 when Israel overturned to the PA 150, 000, 000 of Gaza pension fund to the PA (not back to the PA because they never organized a Gaza pension fund!) it promptly deposited it in (his name?) in a Swiss bank account with the help of an Israeli named"Yossi Ginnosar, a former Israeli master spy, who acted as a secret envoy to the Palestinians for successive Labour prime ministers . . . and opened respectable Swiss institutions for Arafat . . . ." It was kept there for only a year and then . . . ? FT does not report.

One thing is clear, Arafat did not use the funds to develop his future country. He remembered being expelled from Jordan and Lebanon and wanted to make sure that he and his cronies will have enough money his money to continues his"struggle." It is better to keep the Gaza pensioners like the"so called refugees" poor better to blackmail the rest of the world. The manner the Financial Times tries to put the best face on the sorry story and on the failure of the world to stop the abuse of the Palestinians by their"Tunis mafia" is really disheartening.

Mahmoud Abbas has a historical opportunity to demonstrate that a Palestinian leader can actually treat his own people decently. It won't be easy. He, like Yeltsin, is surrounded with colleagues who were enriched by his predecessor. I better stop, I do not like the analogy.