LETTER FROM JERUSALEM: Happy Holidays from Saddam Hussein

By Arlynn Nellhaus

What with Ramadan, Hanukkah and Christmas overlapping this year, even Iraq's Saddam Hussein is in the holiday spirit of giving.

While claiming that sanctions since the Gulf War have impoverished his country, he is nevertheless handing out $10,000 to each family of a Palestinian "martyr" against Israel. The wounded get only $1,000.

According to Yediot Ahronot, Israel's largest newspaper, Palestinian militias supporting Iraq are making the distributions in Gaza, Hebron, Ramallah and Nablus.

After all, one good turn deserves another. It was the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, who bucked world and Arab opinion and supported Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. Palestinians danced on their rooftops and cheered while Hussein's Scuds fell on Israel -- and Israelis donned gas masks in sealed rooms.

All of the population under the Palestinian Authority will share in Hussein's largess (unless it goes the way of other large donations to the PA and somehow "disappears"), for the Iraqi dictator has promised to send an additional $9 million for "basic food needs."

Monetary gifts aren't Hussein's only sign of gratitude. At his expense, wounded Palestinians have been flown to Baghdad hospitals, the very hospitals Hussein has claimed are out of equipment and medicine.

He also sent a convoy of 68 trucks with 4,000 tons of medicine and basic foodstuffs to the PA.

Yediot Ahronot reports that Hussein's picture appears in Palestinian newspapers, the Iraqi flag flies at demonstrations and funerals, Arafat writes him thank-you notes and support for him is shouted in the streets.

Iraq isn't the only oil country that takes the giving season seriously. Saudi Arabia sent $26 million for families of the dead and wounded. Another $22 million goes to the Palestinian Authority's unemployed.

They are unemployed because while the intifada continues, they cannot go to work in Israel.

Also in Saudi Arabia, McDonald's is donating 30 U.S. cents from every hamburger sold there to support the intifada. That's right, the American hamburger chain, McDonald's.

In addition to $10,000 each from Saddam Hussein, families of those killed in the intifada are receiving other gifts. Representatives of the Dubai Red Crescent Society, an affiliate of the International Red Cross, has delivered envelopes of money to these families.

Even the Chechen rebels, busy as they are with their on-going battle against Russia, are donating $1,000 to every "martyr's'" family.

All this, in addition to the PA's payments of $2,000 to each family with a fatality and $1,000 for the wounded. Plus, the Popular National Islamic Committee pays $1,000 for every dead Palestinian, and $300 to all wounded.

Believe it or not, in addition to international Islamic groups, the Iraqis, and the Palestinian Authority, Israel, too, is sending money.

The Arab Balad political movement, headed by Israeli Knesset member Azmi Bishara, kicked off its campaign with a three-day fund drive -- on the Hebrew University campus.

On the other side of the fence, families of Israelis killed or maimed don't receive such benefits. Nor is McDonald's of Israel contributing anything to their welfare.

But a grassroots movement has started up to help the three Cohen children of Kfar Darom. They were in the school bus bombed by Palestinian terrorists. Two teachers were killed in that attack.

The older Cohen girl lost part of her foot. The seven-year-old boy lost a leg. His eight-year-old sister lost both legs and two fingers.

Their house will have to be reconstructed to accommodate them. They will need money for therapy, rehabilitation and the new prostheses required as they grow.

A youngAmerican woman, who was about to be married, heard of the aid drive for the Cohen children. She and her fiance notified their wedding guests not to give them gifts.

Instead, this young couple requested, send a contribution to the wounded Cohen children.

Tragedies happen so fast in this part of the world, it's difficult to keep up with them. And if no one is killed -- well, it's on to the next subject. Israel does not believe in making martyrs of its children. For example, in Israel, hardly anyone talks of two-and-half year old Shalev Shabbat.

It was in May. She was in a car with her mother and aunt. They were driving through Jericho on their way home to Ramot on the Golan Heights, when a Palestinian policeman threw a firebomb at the car.

Shalev was badly burned. She lost all her hair. Half of her face is fine, but the other half is a mass of scar tissue. Five fingers on one hand were burned off. She faces many operations.

She constantly wears a "pressure suit."Yet her mother says she is "a happy child, sings a lot and has, despite everything, an incredible joie-de-vivre".

The Shalev Shabbat tragedy, since no one died, earned about two lines in the Israeli press.

It seems Saddam Hussein's spirit of giving is overlooking wounded children like Shalev, this holiday season in Israel.

Arlynn Nellhaus is a former Denver Post reporter now based in Jerusalem and the author of Into the Heart of Jerusalem.