The USA is going to cut its foreign aid to the Palestinian Authority (in the West Bank) and to Hamas (in Gaza) by $200 million. My first reaction to this news is to ask how it is possible that the USA gave any aid that was funneled through Hamas. After all, Hamas is a terrorist organization which is extremely anti-American. There is no conceivable valid reason to give our cash to them. But that's the simple and immediate response. The bigger question is whether or not it makes sense to reduce aid to the Palestinian Authority.
The answer is certainly yes. President Abbas of the PA has consistently denounced the USA since we moved our embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. He has condemned the American plan for peace between Israel and the Arabs; that's a pretty amazing move since there is, as of yet, no such peace plan. In essence, Abbas says that no peace plan that comes from America could possibly be acceptable. Abbas has also refused to meet with some American envoys in the last six months. So why should we support him and his regime.
It's important to remember just who Abbas and the PA are. Abbas took office when Yasser Arafat died. He was elected to a four year term. That was something like 14 years ago. Since then, elections have been "delayed". Abbas has ruled as a dictator and has used the years to amass a huge personal fortune in accounts in Switzerland. One has to assume that a big chunk of that fortune came from US foreign aid. So he's a kleptocratic dictator. During the Obama administration, Abbas took no steps towards peace, but since Obama was so anti-Israel it did not make a difference. There is no reason to support him.
What is actually happening these days is that the USA is changing the rules of the peace negotiations. For a long time, those rules required everyone to agree to a fiction. The Palestinians were a separate entity that was looking for peace. Long established facts weren't really facts. Now, however, the actual facts are being recognized. Jerusalem was and is the capital of Israel. The Palestinians will never be able to destroy Israel by getting the right to have many millions of their people move there. The millions of Palestinians in countries around the world are not "refugees" of the 1948 war. It makes no sense to encourage them to believe otherwise. And now, most important, the actions of the Palestinians and their leadership are things for which they will be held accountable like any other nation. If they denounce America and reject it and anything it proposes, they will not be supported with out tax dollars.
This will be a hard lesson for Abbas and the PA to learn. It is, though, the clearest path to peace. Lasting peace can only come from a recognition of reality.
The answer is certainly yes. President Abbas of the PA has consistently denounced the USA since we moved our embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. He has condemned the American plan for peace between Israel and the Arabs; that's a pretty amazing move since there is, as of yet, no such peace plan. In essence, Abbas says that no peace plan that comes from America could possibly be acceptable. Abbas has also refused to meet with some American envoys in the last six months. So why should we support him and his regime.
It's important to remember just who Abbas and the PA are. Abbas took office when Yasser Arafat died. He was elected to a four year term. That was something like 14 years ago. Since then, elections have been "delayed". Abbas has ruled as a dictator and has used the years to amass a huge personal fortune in accounts in Switzerland. One has to assume that a big chunk of that fortune came from US foreign aid. So he's a kleptocratic dictator. During the Obama administration, Abbas took no steps towards peace, but since Obama was so anti-Israel it did not make a difference. There is no reason to support him.
What is actually happening these days is that the USA is changing the rules of the peace negotiations. For a long time, those rules required everyone to agree to a fiction. The Palestinians were a separate entity that was looking for peace. Long established facts weren't really facts. Now, however, the actual facts are being recognized. Jerusalem was and is the capital of Israel. The Palestinians will never be able to destroy Israel by getting the right to have many millions of their people move there. The millions of Palestinians in countries around the world are not "refugees" of the 1948 war. It makes no sense to encourage them to believe otherwise. And now, most important, the actions of the Palestinians and their leadership are things for which they will be held accountable like any other nation. If they denounce America and reject it and anything it proposes, they will not be supported with out tax dollars.
This will be a hard lesson for Abbas and the PA to learn. It is, though, the clearest path to peace. Lasting peace can only come from a recognition of reality.
No comments:
Post a Comment