Conflict-Industrial Complex 1.2 – Baksheesh

From Tipping to Political Corruption to Public Policy Influence

My first experience with a “transactional relationship” and the influence of “baksheesh” occurred when I was twelve years old. My friends and I were playing ball in the park in the summer. It was a large park and there were several summer camps using the same facilities.

One day one of the female counselors approached us and asked if we could go to the store and buy her some yoghurt. Being smart-ass 12 year olds with hormones raging staring at this 20 year old counselor, one of us said “if you give us a tip”. She refused. We did not see her again for the rest of the summer.

End of story.

As I entered my grade seven home room class a few weeks later there she was. My home room teacher looked at me and smirked, devilishly. It cost me bushels of apples to get on her good side.

Depending on the context, baksheesh, which is the norm in the Middle East, can be as small as tipping, to charity or outright bribery and political corruption.

We have all participated in some type of baksheesh in our lives. As a student we were taught

that it is prudent to bring the teacher an apple. Parents bring gifts to the teachers at various

times of the year. Corporate gift-giving is its own industry for various occasions. When my

mother was in the hospital for a few weeks after major surgery, my sister-in-law brought the nursing staff bagels every day.

In the business world, if a company is dealing with a purchasing manager, the expression

“what’s in it for me while I am making my boss rich” is always hovering. On a much higher level, when greater than seven figure transactions are involved, the level of corruption can lead into the top level of governments. From the Kennedy dynasty to the Bush Dynasty, Texas oil influenced most decisions. In Canada, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney’s bank account blossomed as Air Canada switched all its planes to Airbus from Boeing. And then there is Benjamin Netanyahu and not to be forgotten Ehud Olmert.

In 2006, what became known as the Siemans Scandal shook the world when it was discovered that Siemans bribed officials in most countries of the world.

When I suggested, in a previous blog that Jordan and Egypt would support a Three State

Solution, I was privately asked why I believe this to be true. My answer is that Qatar doesn’t just have one suitcase filled with $10 million. They have a whole set of matching luggage. Abdel Fateh el-Sissi, president of Egypt, and Rania Al Abdullah, Queen Consort of Jordan, would gladly accept $10 million each month to ensure a “lasting and just peace for the Palestinian people”. If they find cash to be a bit distasteful then they would gladly accept it in bitcoin or direct deposit to their Cyprus bank accounts.

Ismail Haniyeh, Moussa abu Marzuk, Khaled Mashal and the late Yassir Arafat did not become multi-BILLIONAIRES because they had an aversion to baksheesh. They wrote the manual.

How does the idea of baksheesh connect to the Conflict-Industrial Complex?

It’s all about the money.

With almost $400 billion dollars at play every year, the system is ripe for corruption. In

response to my previous post, someone asked me what the connection between UNRWA and

Hamas was in the Conflict-Industrial Complex. In one document UNRWA publishes that

they only have 179 employees. In another document it shows that, in fact, UNRWA has 30,000 employees in the Gaza Strip. UNRWA is the largest employer in Gaza and they have the most to lose in a peace agreement.

In an article titled “Why corruption is so widespread in the Middle East?” Sam Sweeney wrote in the National Review,

"'Do you want the receipts to be legitimate? I chuckled at the question but

wasn’t surprised. I had just purchased about $1,500 worth of manufactured agricultural products directly from the factory for a small NGO I run in northeastern Syria. I was sitting in the factory’s office, which was bustling with potential customers and workers coming and going. In these situations, it isn’t the corruption that is surprising, it’s how normal it has become, with no hush-hush or backroom whispering. In a room full of strangers, the manager was asking me if I wanted him to doctor the receipts for the NGO so I could take a cut. No one batted an eye….if I were an employee of a large international NGO whose management rarely traveled into Syria, it would have been a great opportunity to pocket a few extra dollars."

The article continues, “I mentioned this anecdote to a Western employee of a large NGO. This person said it validated what they already suspected, that corruption among their local staff was the rule, not the exception. Millions of dollars are pouring in via dozens of international and local NGOs to fund displaced-person camps, infrastructure projects, education and health initiatives, and other needs — urgent or otherwise. Oversight is almost impossible, despite the many checks in place that are meant to prevent corruption or nepotism.”

“Societal acceptance of corruption more generally means that it can be very easy to pull the

wool over the eyes of management and find a scheme to make additional money out of their

NGO. It can involve fixing receipts, gatekeeping employment opportunities, or directing aid money to relatives or friends. It doesn’t even need to be entirely secret, given how accepted it has become. It’s hard to combat”.

"Corruption doesn’t always have to involve cooking the books or getting a cut for aid that is

supposed to be free. For example, employment with an international (or internationally funded) NGO has become the most lucrative career choice. In 2020, I was shown a survey of international NGOs saying that many staff were making over $1,000 per month, compared to government salaries in the northeast, which hover around $150. More recently, an international employee of a large NGO told me that some of their local staff make $2,000 per month. To compare, day laborers in Syria often make about $1 per day. Getting into the NGO sector is so lucrative that those who play any sort of gatekeeper role, formally or otherwise, can and do demand a month’s salary or more in exchange for arranging employment.”

UNRWA is the only refugee agency in the world that designates post-refugee/multi-generational citizens as refugees. This increases that amount of refugees under their charge and it gives UNRWA the criteria to demand larger budgets every year. This has an exponential effect on the dollar volume coming into the area as well as the unrest it promotes.

UNRWA is the poster child for THE CONFLICT-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX.

Imagine the baksheesh. The modus operandi of UNRWA is baksheesh. They are basically a

UN source for funneling cash into Gaza.

We know that $9 billion is being sent to Gaza every year just from UNRWA and it lists 30,000

employees in Gaza. In a society rife with corruption the $9 billion either goes directly to Hamas or it gets filtered through Hamas employees or by their system of bribery. The UNRWA funding of $9 billion is basically a source of revenue for Hamas.

UNRWA is probably the best example of the CONFLICT-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX at its worst.

To be continued……