On December 17, 2007, eighty-seven countries and international
organizations met in Paris and pledged to provide $7.4 billion
over three years to the Palestinian Authority (PA), an amount
far in excess of any previous level of U.S. or European aid to
the Palestinians. The conference participants justified the aid
as a means of providing "immediate support to the entire
Palestinian population," and as a reward intended to strengthen
those Palestinians who favor peaceful coexistence with Israel.
In the midst of the effort in Paris to bestow unprecedented sums
of foreign aid on the Palestinians, there was little discussion
of the unintended consequences — often deadly ones — of previous
aid regimens. The recent history of foreign assistance shows a
distinct correlation between aid and violence. Perhaps aid
itself does not cause violence, but there is strong evidence
that it contributes to a culture of corruption, government
malfeasance, and terrorism that has had lethal consequences for
both Israelis and Palesti