Israel is about to release a report entitled “Follow the Money,” a preliminary copy of which has been acquired by Stefan Sharkansky’s Web log, which can be found at www.usefulwork.com/shark. The question, as posited in the report’s subtitle, is “Where do international contributions to the Palestinian Authority really go?” The answers are illuminating. It turns out that 10% of the P.A.’s budget comes from international aid, which amounts to more than $1,000 per capita. The P.A. ostensibly spends two-thirds of its budget on salaries, split between “security forces” and other personnel. Israel’s report shows that almost $20 million of the $60 million budgeted each month for payroll is not used as such and “is available for purposes other than paying salaries,” including the support of terrorism.

This is accomplished through a number of devices — such as playing games with currency conversions and a mandatory “Fatah Membership Fee,” generally between 1.5% and 2% of annual salary automatically deducted from the checks of all members of the “security” establishment. Terrorists also work for the various “security” groups and draw regular pay from them, while engaging in no legitimate business. The report by Israel’s Defense Force estimates that this siphons as much as $1 million a month into local branches of Fatah. The money the pseudo-state generates from its heavy taxes on fuel and tobacco, which are handled by official monopolies, also are not listed in the official budget.

The report will contain documents signed by Yasser Arafat, authorizing local Fatah operatives to serve as bogus P.A. employees. Such operatives are integrated not only into P.A. “security” services, but also civilian offices. The report remarks that “this amounts to a P.A. subsidy financing the Fatah infrastructure.” Marwan Barghouti, who is on trial in the Jewish State for his terror operations, used P.A. money to finance “a broad infrastructure of field operatives who in time became local militias.” The report also exposes the connections of another crony of Mr. Arafat, Hikham Balawi, to the Al Asqa Martyrs Brigades. He allocated money to build a terrorist weapons workshop. Of the $64 million a month the P.A. receives in international aid, the report estimates that $14 million is diverted and that much of that money goes to the active support of terrorists engaged in attacks on Israeli civilians.