These have been good weeks for supporters of the U.S.-Israel alliance and peace in the Middle East. The president made history with his Jerusalem announcement, and his critics—the U.S. foreign policy establishment, Europe, the media—were embarrassed after their dire and hysterical predictions of violence failed to come true.
What’s more, it appears the president and his advisers, in dramatic contrast to the previous administration, take the Palestinians seriously and understand that anti-American, anti-Israel, and anti-Semitic rhetoric from Palestinian leaders is meaningful. The president also appears to believe that enormous U.S. spending on the Palestinian Authority—more than $5 billion since the mid-1990s—has earned us a negative return. The billions haven’t promoted peace, but instead kleptocracy, terror, and hate—in the course of making Palestinians the greatest per capita recipients of foreign aid in the world.
Conflict with Israel is what keeps American and European aid money flowing, so conflict is what we get. As Trump might tweet: Not smart!
Now the administration has apparently held up a payment to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) and is exploring ways to reduce aid to the Palestinians. Reforming U.S. aid to the Palestinians is long overdue—so allow me a recommendation for the administration.
There are three major streams of U.S. funding for the Palestinians: INCLE, ESF, and UNRWA.
INCLE is the security assistance program, which costs $70 million a year (although it was reduced to $35 million in 2017) and is probably the worthiest aid program. The money promotes the competence of PA security forces, cooperation with Israel, and helps the PA keep Hamas and other jihadists down in the West Bank.
ESF, the Economic Support Fund, is the program through which the United States directly assists the PA, in recent years between around $300-$400 million per year. ESF money is paid to PA creditors (mostly hospitals and Israeli utility companies) and funds USAID projects, many of which supplant the basic governance responsibilities of the PA (building infrastructure, etc.). Since 2015, the United States has reduced ESF funding equivalent to PA spending on its “pay for slay” program, in which it pays salaries to terrorists and their families. The amount of this reduction is classified, largely to help the Palestinians save face. Today, with the Taylor Force Act near passage, ESF will soon be reduced even more. Any remaining amount should be subject to cuts, of course, because foreign aid isn’t charity or an entitlement. But what’s left to cut may be fairly small.
The big, expensive, terrible program that desperately needs reform is UNRWA. This UN bureaucracy was established in 1950 after Israel’s War of Independence, when a coalition of Arab states failed to wipe the new nation off the map. The war the Arabs started but lost created around 650,000 Arab refugees. These refugees were then exploited by the UN and the Arab states, which realized they could be used as pawns in the permanent war on Israel’s legitimacy.
UNRWA was created, and along with it a clever new definition for refugees: For Palestinians, unique among all people in the world, refugee status would be hereditary. This has been terrible for Palestinians, but it has worked splendidly in maintaining a false grievance for Israel’s detractors, who can blame the constantly growing “refugee crisis” on Israel. Today there are 5.2 million “refugees” living in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Gaza, and the West Bank, only a fraction of a percentage of whom were even alive during the war in 1948 and 1949.
As the number of fake refugees increases, so does UNRWA’s budget, which today is well north of $1 billion a year. Since the beginning the United States has donated close to $6 billion in total, and is (by far) UNRWA’s single biggest donor at around $400 million a year. The United States is contributing to the cruel exploitation of millions of Palestinians, who are raised in dependency, grievance, and victimhood, and taught in UNRWA schools and community centers to believe in the fantasy of Israel’s destruction and their “return” to homes they never had.
Two suggestions for reform:
1) In the short term, a shot across the bow. UNRWA has something called a “cash assistance” program that involves UNRWA literally handing out cash to people in Gaza (controlled by Hamas) and Syria (controlled by Iran). There is no accountability or oversight for these disbursements, which in 2016 amounted to an astonishing $192.3 million. How skeptical should we be of this program? Here is how UNRWA itself describes it:
“Cash assistance is a dignified, cost-effective, and flexible tool to address the most immediate and urgent needs of vulnerable refugees in crisis. By allowing conflict-affected civilians to independently determine and meet their respective essential priorities, short-term cash assistance boosts individual coping strategies and enables refugees to allocate scarce financial resources to their own household priorities.”
UNRWA’s cash handouts program undoubtedly involves an enormous amount of waste, fraud, and diversion of funds to terrorists and other bad actors. Future U.S. donations to UNRWA should be conditioned on either the termination, or the strict reduction and dramatic reform, of this program.
2) In the long term, condition U.S. assistance on a change in UNRWA’s definition of a refugee. U.S. and international law reject hereditary refugee status for obvious reasons. UNRWA should adopt the refugee definition that is observed everywhere else in the world, including at the UN: that of the 1951 Geneva Convention. This is the policy change UNRWA fears the most—and it is the policy change that will do the most good, because it will allow the descendants of refugees from 1948 to finally have a chance at normal lives.
Delaying or reducing the U.S. donation to UNRWA this year won’t accomplish much. What will put us on a much better path, and what the administration should do if it wants a lasting humanitarian legacy in the Middle East and enormous savings for U.S. taxpayers, is condition future donations to UNRWA on permanent policy changes. It is time for UNRWA’s mission to be transformed from enlarging the number of “refugees” and promoting an ever-expanding problem, to helping integrate Palestinians into the countries where they live, consistent with the treatment of all other refugees in recent history.
Hello, Edgar.
Gargoyles were waterspouts, some in the form of chimera. None that I know of, was ever purposely designed to look like a Jew. I think you are acting paranoid.
cf. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gargoyle
I didn’t take your comments out of context. You said you believe Jesus never existed. You meant this entirely perjoratively, just as the Muslims who say the Jews of today aren’t really Jews, or never lived in ancient Israel, etc. You cannot possibly believe that Jesus did not exist, any more than you think those Muslims cannot believe as they do. Jesus was not a phantom, an imagination or a gargoyle. Only a human being can teach and inspire. You are being disingenuous.
The bottom line here, is that both you and the Muslims are trying to delegitimize their presumed enemies. It feels different to be on the receiving end, than it is to be on the sending end; but both parties are doing the same thing.
@ Michael S:
Not “recognising” does not mean that they don’t acknowledge it exists. For example one of the countries that doesn’t “recognise” is Lebanon, who have been in a State of War with Israel since I think, 1948 or certainly 1967. And I’m sure I’ve seen several other of the countries who have made references to Israel, uncomplimentary of course, but this is acknowledgement to me. So I disagree with you here.
There is a difference between the Arab believing that the Jews are not human, their meaning is completely pejorative and malicious, likening us to demons, or devils just as the Medieval Christians all did (you just need to look at the gargoyles on all the Middle Ages built churches and cathedrals, their adornment along ledges and roof peaks, water drainage outlets etc.etc. Michelangelo’s Moses complete with horns-I actually saw this myself)…..
My belief that Jesus, (and most of the Disciples as well as Paul) never existed, and is a myth etc. if a far different thing. It’s not a derogation, except in your perhaps devotee-driven mind.(how euphemistic can I be) But I’ve met religion-crazy people before…like my late father-in-law for instance , a Plymouth Brother. My wife was a Satmar convert. And in my shool when I was growing up there were ultra-religious people too. My dear mother’s uncle was a religious lunatic in a quiet way., walking around with his tallit on all day, muttering tehillim all the time under his breath, (He lived with us for several years (until he passed away), because my dear mother revered him, and his own children couldn’t stand him)..We had to creep softly I can tell you…….!! He very rarely would take a cup or plate from one of us, always scalding it under a kettle. I think to him, we weren’t kosher.
So..PLEASE do not deliberately take my comments out of context, or give them interpretations that were never clearly intended.
Edgar, you said,
“I don’t think that there is a single country in the world that deny’s the legitimacy of Israel.”
If you’re serious, you’ve got blinders on. Try these on for size:
“At present, a total of 31 United Nations member states do not recognise the State of Israel:”
— Google
Besides those 31, I dare say almost NO countries recognize Israel as “The Jewish State”. Also, virtually no countries recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
Getting a LITTLE closer to your position concerning Jesus, most Muslims do not believe the Jews of Jesus’ time exist. They believe the Jews of today are imposters; some even believe they are not human. THAT is very close to what you have said about Jesus, if I am not mistaken.
Of course, you have the right to believe these things. I’m just pointing out that much of the world thinks just as you do — only with roles reversed. This would be a purely academic matter, one I am not even interested in, if these things were not at the CENTER of international politics nowadays; and you know fully well where I stand on these matters: I stand with Israel, and with the Jews.
I’ve just explained to you the “tit for tat” comment, and what I meant by it.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful, if the world would simply recognized reality, as revealed by old (1700-era) texts? They do not: The Arabs do not, the Europeans do not, and you do not.
@ Michael S:
I don’t get the “tit-for-tat” meaning. I see no connection, unless it’s that because I deny Jesus ever existed, causes Israel to have to fight for it’s legitimacy.
Although…I don’t think that there is a single country in the world that deny’s the legitimacy of Israel. I include even thre Arab counties, they way they refer to our country is by the name of “Israel”….that’s recognition enough. Even the ludicrous, murderous YESHA Arabs call our country Israel, although they make those funny maps which have an unknown, mythical country they call “Palestine” sprawled all over Israel. But only on the maps.
@ Edgar G.:
Hi, Edgar
I think it’s odd, that Israel is the only nation on earth that labors, day and night, to prove its right to exist; adding to that the fact that it’s one of the most ancient countries on earth. Hungarians and Poles don’t have to prove that they occupied the land they’re in, say, in 800 CE (they didn’t); Brits don’t have to deny that their Anglo-Saxon forebears were relatively recent invaders; Russians don’t have to deny that the first “Russians” were barbaric, anarchic Varangians from Sweden; and the imaginary “Palestinian” nation needn’t explain the fact that it never existed at all. Only Israel must repeatedly dig up proof after proof, only to have it rejected by the world powers.
Of course, you deny that Jesus ever existed, the one the West’s secular calendar is based on; so “tit for tat”, I guess.
The operative word is, “delegitimize”
@ Michael S:
The difference between Twain and Reland, is that Reland made a deliberate specific, detailed survey and census of the 2500 cities, towns and villages mentioned in The Mishna, (also where in the Scriptures the town was mentioned), with a view of finding out the conditions in the Holy Land, and the numbers of Jews, Christians, Samaritans in each place etc. He pointed out that there were NO Arabs other than a few seasonal Bedouin nomads. Reland’s account was comprehensive, including everything, he being a noted expert of great talents. A youthful genius and polymath.
Twain, just confirms in his casual travels, that the conditions according to Reland, had continued,, I’ve read many years ago, that almost immediately after 1291 when the Kingdom of Jerusalem fell, Saladin left the country with his army. Stagnation began, and only intensified over the long years to a forgotten mostly uninhabited backwater. Only some Christians and Jews survived and stayed. Others came on pilgrimage and stayed.
Bit NO ARABS. (even the Mamluks were not Arabs, but captured young non-Muslim slaves, brought up to be Muslim soldiers).
Hi, Edgar
I clicked on the site, which is at
https://palestineisraelconflict.wordpress.com/2014/04/27/a-tour-and-census-of-palestine-year-1695-no-sign-of-arabian-names-or-palestinians/
and scanned it. The conclusions (my numbering):
1. Hardly any Arabic place names. I read a few years ago that even today, few place names in Israel, including the “Palestinian” areas, are Arabic. This does not mean that places such as Hevron have Hebrew majorities; but it does indicate that the Jews were there first, long before the Arabs.
2. What is now modern Israel was largely uninhabited in 1695. This agrees with what Mark Twain said he saw on his visit there, 200 years later. There were certainly Arabs there, but they were probably mostly nomadic Bedouin.
3. Jerusalem and Nazareth were about the only communities of note; and they were mostly Jewish and Christian, not Muslim Arab
Thank you for your research.
Sebastien, Michael, Yamit82…. The first modern census of Palestine since Roman times.
Type in “Hadriani Relandi” Go down the page until you come to “A TOUR AND CENSUS OF PALESTINE Year 1695.. No sign of Arabian names…..” (written in Latin and published in 1714). It’s name is actually “Palaestina ex Monumentis Veteribus Illustrata..”
To make it simple you can just key in the name of the book (above) and the 5th entry down the page is “Avi Goldreich-Think-Israel”, who wrote the essay, and it’s repeated here. Just discovered this by chance.
Open it for the essay by Avi Goldreich , Translated by Nurit Greenger.
Of course you may have already heard of and seen this. I saw it several years ago after hearing the name Hadriani Relandi (Adriaan Reland) which piqued my interest, causing me to follow it up. I mentioned it a couple of times on this site but nobody took the bait, so I forgot about it-until now. It bears out what all the travellers, and geographers of centuries ago have said. .
There is an original copy in Haifa University and I wrote to them years ago but got no reply. I’ve found the person to write to, and will email him, hoping that he’s translated it into English, or at least made a synopsis. But the article I’ve just mentioned above there is enough.
And, of course, all the censuses over the centuries were by religion not language. Many People probably spoke multiple languages as they had to in much of Europe.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographic_history_of_Palestine_(region)
@ Edgar G.:
Yes, and either Katz or Peters or both, who additionally cited the memoirs of a Syrian, I think, Prime Minister saying the same thing, as well as official British sources.
A pro-Palestinian leftist once asked me what language most people spoke in the 19th century in Palestine. I replied that it depended on where you went, Jerusalem was mostly Jewish from the early 19th century on.
But, I later read somewhere online that there were more than 50 linguistic groups at the turn of the 20th century.
Leftists are such hypocrites. They use language as a determining factor when it supports their thesis and throw it out the window when it doesn’t. For example, one doesn’t say, Spanish people in the US but Latino, which includes the many non-Spanish speakers such as Brazilians, Mexican Indians, the English speaking Guyanese, who are also mostly Black, and Mesquito Indians.
@ Sebastien Zorn:
I think I posted a good while ago that the British Colonial Office documented that over 33,000 Arabs had entered Israel by just crossing the headwaters of the Jordan, and coming over the bridges in a single year 1933 (I think-or 32) And they added that their figures didn’t include those who entered illegally which, they estimated were nearly as many.
@ david melech: The sentence highlighted in bold is what got Joan Peters, who started out as Pro-Palestinian, wondering and investigating.
So, even absent fraud, and there’s plenty of that they are mostly recent arrivals in 1948.. The actual number was just over 300,000 and most of those were illegal migrants who came during the Mandate period from the surrounding states as the British closed one eye, as they barred Jews from coming.
See:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battleground:_Fact_and_Fantasy_in_Palestine
Sebastien Zorn Said:
which playbook states the arabs have a right to citizenship?? how many off them lived in J-S prior to 48? those who did with a clean sheet could apply for a green card. those who entered willingly or forced by the HASHimite rulers 48-67 can’t be allowed even a bus pass.
@ Sebastien Zorn:
that link leads to lots of interesting vids. forget the crossword at coffee break, watch vids, tks
We’ve been tearing our hair out for how long worrying over the dilemma of how to re-establish sovereignty over all of Judea and Samaria without giving citizenship to the Arabs?
Isn’t it time, the U.S. and Israel made an issue of the Palestinian Arabs who have been living in Arab countries for generations and have not been granted citizenship?
Who are they to point their fingers at Israel, especially since they created the problem in the first place, and these descendants are almost all the descendants of illegal immigrants from the surrounding Arab countries like Egypt and Jordan who flooded in during the Mandate period while Jews were turned back at gunpoint despite the legal requirement to let us in.
Kahane, who was probably the first to float the compensated emigration plan around 1970, said in his book, “The Must Go” that the millions of dollars, now billions with interest, stolen from the Jews expelled from the newly created Arab countries and absorbed by Israel should pay for the Palestinian Arabs’ repatriation to their actual homelands.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwBSWN4s9JU
still trying find when unc. sam created this problem that is costing everyone excepting the muzzies $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$. how about unc. sam making a u n s c motion ‘he who causes/creates the problem solves it.’ as of right now the illegals in J-S led by abarse should be a state of grovel including the u n