views
commentary
W
e didn’t need the publica-
experts seeking to restrain Trump
tion of a new book filled
can’t seem to grasp this fact.
with behind-the-scenes
Aid to the P.A. is seen as necessary
gossip to know that Donald Trump
to prop up the only available inter-
is an unconventional and, at times,
locutor for peace with Israel. We’re
inappropriate president. His
also told that funding the P.A. is
use of Twitter provides many
a necessary part of its security
examples of this fact.
cooperation with Israel.
But amid another flurry
There are elements of truth to
of questionable tweets on
these assertions. If the P.A. were
Jan. 4, Trump also talked
to collapse, that would likely
about threatening aid cuts
lead to Israel having to reassert
to the Palestinian Authority
direct control of the West Bank
(P.A.). Most of the main-
rather than the current situa-
Jonathan S.
stream media treated that
tion
in which the overwhelm-
Tobin
idea as being as loopy as the
ing majority of Palestinians
latest exchange of insults
are governed by the corrupt
with North Korea’s dictator.
Fatah party led by P.A. leader
But while it’s easy to mock
Mahmoud Abbas. But the P.A.’s
Trump’s social media habits, this one
need for cash to prop up its kleptoc-
made sense and showed that, not for
racy is exactly why the U.S. should be
the first time, the president’s instinc-
using its financial leverage to make it
tual distrust of experts and the foreign clear to Abbas that a quarter-century
policy establishment may have served
of his organization holding the U.S.
him well.
hostage in this manner can’t continue.
The minuscule amount of the
Abbas’s threats of dissolving the P.A.
national budget that goes to foreign
are bluffs that should have been called
nations generally serves American
long ago.
interests. In the case of Israel, which
The same is true of security cooper-
is the largest recipient, almost all of
ation. Abbas relies on Israel to ensure
the money it gets is spent in the U.S.
his survival against the plots of his
It’s also part of a strategic alliance in
Islamist rivals as much, if not more,
which America receives a great deal
than the Israelis rely on the P.A. to
back in terms of intelligence and tech- help keep terror under control in the
nology.
West Bank.
But not all foreign aid serves U.S.
The P.A. also uses the hundreds
interests. The money sent to the
of millions of dollars it gets from
Palestinians illustrates this painfully
the U.S. to provide salaries and pen-
obvious conclusion. Yet despite the
sions to terrorists and their families.
abundant proof that keeping it flow-
Congressional efforts to hinge U.S. aid
ing is counterproductive, the so-called to ending the P.A.’s subsidies via the
Contributing Writers:
Ruthan Brodsky, Rochel Burstyn, Suzanne
Chessler, Annabel Cohen, Don Cohen, Shari
S. Cohen, Shelli Liebman Dorfman, Adam
Finkel, Stacy Gittleman, Stacy Goldberg, Judy
Greenwald, Ronelle Grier, Esther Allweiss
Ingber, Allison Jacobs, Barbara Lewis, Jennifer
Lovy, Rabbi Jason Miller, Alan Muskovitz,
David Sachs, Karen Schwartz, Robin Schwartz,
Steve Stein, Joyce Wiswell
Arthur M. Horwitz
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SHEALAH CRAIGHEAD/WHITE HOUSE
Why Trump’s Palestinian Aid Cut Threat Makes Sense
President Donald Trump (left) and Palestinian
Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (center) in
Bethlehem on May 23, 2017.
Taylor Force Act deserve the presi-
dent’s support.
The same is true about the mas-
sive American contributions to
UNRWA, the United Nations refu-
gee agency that is solely devoted to
the Palestinians. While UNRWA is
credited with feeding and educat-
ing Palestinians, its main role is in
maintaining the Arab refugees as a
stateless people to perpetuate an
ongoing threat to Israel’s existence. An
equal number of Jews were forced to
flee their homes in Arab and Muslim
countries after 1948, but they were
absorbed in Israel and the West. Yet
UNRWA has been part of the effort to
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| Detroit Jewish News
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prevent Palestinian Arabs from being
absorbed elsewhere, thereby allow-
ing them to cling to their dream of
destroying the Jewish state.
UNRWA’s schools have courses
and books that promote hatred of
Israel and Jews. Just as outrageous is
the fact that UNRWA employees are
often involved with Palestinian ter-
ror organizations, and its schools and
other facilities have been used to store
Hamas weapons where they would
presumably be safe from Israeli retali-
ation.
American governments have toler-
ated this situation because they felt
there was no alternative. But whether
or not it is because he isn’t so versed
in policy, and therefore is not bur-
dened with the conventional wisdom
that has made destructive programs
seem reasonable, Trump appears to
be unwilling to keep throwing good
money after bad.
You don’t have to be supporter of
Trump or Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu’s government to under-
stand that he is right to demand that
if the Palestinians want U.S. money
they must, at the very least, come
back to the negotiating table and
cease funding and fomenting terror.
It isn’t so much a case of “America
First” to demand that recipients of U.S.
largesse cooperate with U.S. policy, as
it is one of common sense. Whatever
his other faults, Trump’s insistence on
this is neither foolish nor proof of his
being unfit for office. •
Jonathan S. Tobin is editor in chief of JNS. Follow
him on Twitter at @jonathans_tobin.
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