The Palestinian Authority is beset by a deep financial crisis, as the New York Times reports in a dispatch by Jerusalem bureau chief Ethan Bronner ("Before a Diplomatic Showdown, a Budget Crisis Saps Palestinians' Confidence" July 28, page A4). But after reporting the PA's dire shortage of cash -- wages cut for 150,000 PA workers, ministries losing electricity for failing to pay bills, Palestinians maxed out on credit, the garbage piling up in a "severe economic crisis, leading many to a sense of foreboding and despair" -- Bronner stops short of laying out the entire picture of why the Palestinians have gotten themselves in such a bind. The immediate cause of the crisis is obvious -- Arab regimes, including oil-rich Saudi Arabia and Gulf emirates, are reneging on their financial commitments to the PA. Bronner points a finger at "foreign -- especially Arab -- donors." Actually, it's all because Arab regimes have pulled back. Israel continues to send hundreds of millions of dollars in tax receipts to the PA, the....
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