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In abstaining on UNRWA at the UN, the US is pushing peace away

UNRWA, despite its name, is not a ‘relief’ effort. It is a political, anti-peace effort.

The US did not veto an unjustly overlooked, anti-Israel resolution at the UN on Nov. 9. Rather, the US abstained.

The resolution demanded “compensation” for descendants of Palestinian refugees who lost property, at least in part because their leaders told them to leave their homes behind, more than 70 years ago.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNWRA) is the only agency of its kind in the world. No refugee problem that originated in the 1940s is still a problem. UNWRA does not provide “relief.” It provides dependency and perpetuates a problem.

If only this were the worst of it. UNWRA also has long extended financial aid to terrorists, though it now says it has stopped. Given that money is fungible and that UNWRA and the terrorists it has supported have demonstrated that they are world class experts in disguising their use of funds, we find it hard to credit UNWRA’s current claim of terror-free funding.

Still more. UNWRA has long sponsored or turned a blind eyes to the Palestinian production of hate-filled textbooks.Yes, it is UNWRA’s responsibility to stop this, since UNWRA runs almost all schools in the Gaza Strip, ruled by Hamas, which openly proclaims its dedication to Israel’s destruction. By failing to end the hate-filled textbooks in Hamas-controlled Gaza, UNWRA is implicated as a tool of and a promoter of Hamas’ genocidal intentions.

The ADL is proud of its “No Place for Hate” program in schools. The ADL would never be admitted to an UNWRA-funded classroom.

Yet, the Biden administration insists on restoring funding, to the tune of $316 million, to UNWRA. The odd thing is — very odd — the administration itself declares that UNWRA is woefully, morally deficient. Sec. of State Antony Blinken said last June that the US is determined that “UNWRA pursue very necessary reforms in terms of some of the abuses of the system that have taken place in the past, particularly the challenge that we’ve seen in disseminating in its educational products anti-Semitic or anti-Israel information.”

Does Blinken think that a declaration like his will make the slightest dent at UNWRA once the US resumes its pre-Trump, lavish funding of UNWRA — funding that has never resulted in “necessary reforms”? Incidentally, these reforms were demanded well before Trump, who ended American funding because the long efforts at reforming UNWRA failed.

Double the oddity. The Deputy US Ambassador to the UN, Richard Mills, would have us believe that he thinks the UN is dead wrong for singling out Israel in a package of anti-Israel resolutions. Yet, the administration did not veto one of these gratuitous resolutions.

“The United States will continue to work with UNWRA; work to strengthen the agency accountability, its transparency and its consistency with UN principles,” said Mills.

We wonder which planet he is living on. UNWRA has had more than 70 years to become accountable and transparent. It’s never happened. But now, while handing UNWRA $316 million with no strings attached — other than declarations — Mills thinks it will happen.

Former US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said, “This is not how you treat your friends.”

She is right. But it is not just America’s friend Israel that the administration mistreats. It is the Palestinian leadership itself. The leadership will never give up its terrorism, and never make peace with Israel — a la the genuine peace between Israel and the United Arab Emirates — until it realizes that there is never going to be a “right of return” for refugees created over 70 years ago, or for their millions of descendants.

As of 2014, UNWRA officially registered 4.9 million Palestinian refugees and their descendants. This isn’t “relief.” This isn’t a humanitarian mission. This is a straight out political mission. For if it were not UNWRA’s mission to destroy the Jewish state of Israel by flooding it with Palestinian descendants, then why register them? Why keep them as refugees in perpetuity?

Why are the Palestinians the only group to which an entire refugee agency has been dedicated? This obviously speaks of other motivations? For the US to focus on the 1940s is to detract from the real refugee work of the 2020s, including some one million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.

If UNWRA were disbanded, the consequent Palestinian dependency would end, though this is easier said than done. Right now, much of Palestinian civil society is one big UNWRA-run welfare program. It will take time and skill to close this down, but the benefits would be enormous. Palestinians would be forced to focus on building an independent, stronger, self-sustaining economy.

The end of UNWRA would also make peace with Israel more attractive, and not just because of the elimination of hate-Israel textbooks. Peace pays economic dividends. Witness the dramatic economic results of the UAE-Israel peace, only one year old.

Not to be exempt of criticism for the continuation of UNWRA is Israel. In supporting UNWRA, Israel works against its long-term benefit, whatever the immediate gains.

Still more: It is the best kept secret that a minority of Palestinian society is doing quite well. Housing is booming. Factories are active. Universities are flourishing. It’s just that most of the Palestinians have been closed out of this by the UNWRA-dependency mentality and civil control. End that, and the new pool of available manpower would offer the potential for a flourishing Palestinian economy. That potential would be worth supporting.

Instead, the US shamefully abstains on a resolution that ignores UNWRA’s malign influence, well practiced, well maneuvered, well disguised, well before Trump.

Not to mention, the UN resolution last Nov. 9 demands compensation for a 1940s Palestinian refugee issue while it ignores the 1940s Jewish refugee issue.

There is a debate as to what percentage of Arabs fled Palestine during Israel’s War of Independence, and what percentage were expelled by Israel. But there is no debate at all as to what percentage of Jews living in Arab lands such as Iraq were expelled during and after the 1947-1949 war, the 1956 Suez War, the Six Day War and Libya’s “Day of Expulsion” in 1970. It was close to 100%. That was some 850,000 Jews, somewhat larger than the estimated number of Palestinian refugees of the 1940s. While there are millions of descendants of the original Palestinian refugees, there are millions of descendants of the Jewish refugees just the same.

Compensate neither group.

Move on.

Grow up.

UNWRA solves nothing, exacerbates everything.

Obama abstained on an anti-Israel resolution just before he left office. Now, Biden abstains. Is this supposed to be progress toward peace?

Copyright © 2021 by the Intermountain Jewish News




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