Are the sons of Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president growing rich off their father’s system of ‘lost aid’ and extensive Palestinian corruption?
BY JONATHAN SCHANZER
In the wake of the Arab Spring, U.S. leaders have promised to reverse the United States’ long reliance on autocratic, unrepresentative leaders who enrich themselves at the expense of their citizens. There’s only one problem: Just as top American officials have been making these lofty promises, new details are emerging of how close family members of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, a major U.S. partner in the Middle East, have grown wealthy. Have they enriched themselves at the expense of regular Palestinians — and even U.S. Continue Reading »