The State Department announced this afternoon that American support for UNWRA has ended. The USA gave the UN agency which supports people classified as Palestinian refugees about 60 million dollars earlier this year, but that will be all in 2018. Last year, the USA gave about $350 million. The State Department called UNWRA a "fatally flawed agency" as a reason for this announcement.
It's important to understand just who it is that UNWRA supports. The refugees in question are from the first war between Israel and the Arabs in 1948-9. At that time, the UN voted to partition Palestine between a Jewish and an Arab state. Israel accepted the outcome of the vote, but the Arabs rejected it and five different Arab armies invaded Jewish regions of Palestine. Amazingly, the 600,000 Jews in Israel at the time managed to fight off the Arab armies and even push them back a bit into territory that had been designated for the Arabs. About half a million Arabs fled to avoid the fighting. Some were told to leave by many Arab leaders to avoid getting in the way of the armies. Others were pushed out by the Israeli advance. When the fighting ended, the Arab nations expelled the Jews who lived in these countries. Nearly one and one half million Jews fled to Israel where they were integrated into the population as new Israelis. Meanwhile the Arab countries refused to accept the Palestinians who had fled. They forced these people into refugee camps where they lived for decades. UNWRA was formed to help support these refugees. The states where the camps were located, however, refused to allow the Palestinians to be integrated into their citizenry. They were made into perpetual refugees.
In the following 50 years, the refugees died off. Their children and grandchildren, however, were given refugee status by UNWRA and continued to get support from the agency. Think of that. A young man who is 20 and lives in Lebanon in 2018 gets welfare payments from UNWRA today because 70 years ago his great-grandfather used to live in Jaffa, near Tel Aviv. The truth is that the world does not owe support to people who choose to become permanent refugees in order to get that support. These people can learn to support themselves.
Consider this situation. Poland suffered terribly at the hands of the Germans in World War II. Should the world support the great grandchildren of people who suffered during that war in Poland today, some 75 years later? Why would that be?
For decades, the Palestinians got this support, principally from the USA. The dollar amount is not huge in the context of the US budget. Still, since the payments kept rolling in, it allowed the Palestinians to think that they could go on refusing to accept peace and the world would just support them forever. Well, the USA has just put an end to that foolishness.
In just this year, the Trump administration has made clear that Jerusalem is really the capital of Israel, that the so-called settlements which are really parts of Jerusalem and its suburbs are not going to be given to the Palestinians and certainly are not going to be rid of all the Jewish residents, that there is not going to be a return of millions of Arabs into Israel in order to turn that state into an Arab majority one, and that the Palestinians are no longer going to be supported by the world as they work to thwart any chance for peace. For the first time in many decades, the Palestinians are being given a realistic choice: they can work for and accept a peaceful solution and get help from the world, or they can continue to fight against any peaceful solution to the conflict with Israel, but they will have to do so without the support of the USA through UNWRA.
This doesn't guarantee peace, but at least it finally gives peace a chance.
It's important to understand just who it is that UNWRA supports. The refugees in question are from the first war between Israel and the Arabs in 1948-9. At that time, the UN voted to partition Palestine between a Jewish and an Arab state. Israel accepted the outcome of the vote, but the Arabs rejected it and five different Arab armies invaded Jewish regions of Palestine. Amazingly, the 600,000 Jews in Israel at the time managed to fight off the Arab armies and even push them back a bit into territory that had been designated for the Arabs. About half a million Arabs fled to avoid the fighting. Some were told to leave by many Arab leaders to avoid getting in the way of the armies. Others were pushed out by the Israeli advance. When the fighting ended, the Arab nations expelled the Jews who lived in these countries. Nearly one and one half million Jews fled to Israel where they were integrated into the population as new Israelis. Meanwhile the Arab countries refused to accept the Palestinians who had fled. They forced these people into refugee camps where they lived for decades. UNWRA was formed to help support these refugees. The states where the camps were located, however, refused to allow the Palestinians to be integrated into their citizenry. They were made into perpetual refugees.
In the following 50 years, the refugees died off. Their children and grandchildren, however, were given refugee status by UNWRA and continued to get support from the agency. Think of that. A young man who is 20 and lives in Lebanon in 2018 gets welfare payments from UNWRA today because 70 years ago his great-grandfather used to live in Jaffa, near Tel Aviv. The truth is that the world does not owe support to people who choose to become permanent refugees in order to get that support. These people can learn to support themselves.
Consider this situation. Poland suffered terribly at the hands of the Germans in World War II. Should the world support the great grandchildren of people who suffered during that war in Poland today, some 75 years later? Why would that be?
For decades, the Palestinians got this support, principally from the USA. The dollar amount is not huge in the context of the US budget. Still, since the payments kept rolling in, it allowed the Palestinians to think that they could go on refusing to accept peace and the world would just support them forever. Well, the USA has just put an end to that foolishness.
In just this year, the Trump administration has made clear that Jerusalem is really the capital of Israel, that the so-called settlements which are really parts of Jerusalem and its suburbs are not going to be given to the Palestinians and certainly are not going to be rid of all the Jewish residents, that there is not going to be a return of millions of Arabs into Israel in order to turn that state into an Arab majority one, and that the Palestinians are no longer going to be supported by the world as they work to thwart any chance for peace. For the first time in many decades, the Palestinians are being given a realistic choice: they can work for and accept a peaceful solution and get help from the world, or they can continue to fight against any peaceful solution to the conflict with Israel, but they will have to do so without the support of the USA through UNWRA.
This doesn't guarantee peace, but at least it finally gives peace a chance.
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