Secretary of State Antony Blinken announces financial aid to the Palestinians in five ways:
• $150 million for the United Nations Works and Relief Agency;
• $75 million in humanitarian assistance;
• $10 million for peace-building programs;
• $15 million for coronavirus relief;
• $40 million for security training for Palestinian police.
Except for the last category, all of this relief will reinforce Palestinian rejectionism — rejection of Israel and rejection of peace (which is the same thing).
The funds for UNWRA perpetuate the myth that fifth-generation descendants of 1948 Palestinians are refugees. The UN defines no other refugee in the world down to the fifth-generation, only Palestinians. UNWRA does not lift people out of refugee status, but perpetuates it — even if the Palestinian descendants have acquired citizenship in another country! They’re eligible for funds even if they live in Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and, in some cases, Europe and North America. Reintegration is formally not a goal of UNWRA. UNWRA is a unique form of bondage, an anti-humanitarian crisis, a UN dole for nearly 30,000 “Palestinian staff.” What is Antony Blinken thinking?
The funds for the next three categories would be worthy if they were spent for their intended purposes. However, the Palestinian Authority has squandered billions of dollars of similarly intended relief on corruption and on payments to terrorists and the families of terrorists. This has been dubbed “pay for slay.” This has been outlawed by the US. Critically, this has been evaded by the Palestinian Authority through accounting tricks, as reported in the Passover business section of the IJN. Critically, the head of the PA, Mahmoud Abbas, has said these payments are sacred, and will continue. What is Blinken thinking?
The funds for security training for Palestinian police are expended in conjunction with Israel, which has favored these joint security arrangements over the course of several American administrations. These expenditures have the effect of reducing terrorism from the PA-controlled West Bank — reducing, not eliminating.
To the extent that Hamas, rather than the PA, is the recipient of foreign aid, Hamas uses the aid to acquire armaments and build terror tunnels, not to invest in infrastructure, jobs or housing.
Overall, the Biden administration is turning back the clock to the same old same old.
First, the funding is not conditioned on any essential change in the Palestinian rejection of Israel as a permanent Jewish state in the region, with whom peace must mean a final settlement of all claims by all sides.
Second, the funding is not designed to build the Palestinian economy; it is a dole.
Third, the funding acquiesces in Palestinian authoritarianism (Mahmoud Abbas is in the 16th year of his four-year term).
This tired old approach contrasts with the fresh approach of the Trump administration, which thought out of the box and in doing so yielded four unprecedented peace agreements between Israel and four Muslim countries. This administration’s “peace-building programs” will lead where they have always lead: nowhere. The call of the hour is for new ideas.
Copyright © 2021 by the Intermountain Jewish News
