President Abbas of the Palestinian Authority announced the other day that he and his people are no longer bound by any of the deals they made with Israel. To be clear, Abbas is saying that the entire Oslo agreement under which negotiations have progressed for the last twenty years is no longer in force. It was Oslo that led to the creation of areas of the West Bank ruled by the Palestinians. It was Oslo that led to Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. And it was Oslo that led to the commencement of massive amounts of aid being sent to the Palestinian Authority by the USA and other nations. So the question naturally arises, if the Oslo accords are no longer binding, what happens to all of these things? Why should the USA continue to send aid as part of a process that the Palestinians have renounced?
Think about these aid monies for a moment. In the first years of the aid flow, most of it ended up in the personal account of Yassir Arafat, then the leader of the Palestinians. Arafat somehow amassed a fortune of billions of dollars which went to his wife at his death. He got that by stealing the aid intended for his people. There is no indication that Abbas has stolen aid money on anything like that scale. Abbas is an anti-democratic tyrant, to be sure, but kleptocracy does not seem to be his practice. Instead, he just stays in office without any legitimacy; he is already in the tenth year of a four year term.
The aid money was intended to make the transition to a peaceful solution possible. Abbas and the Palestinians now say that the effort is over. Why would we aid them?
Now, given the disdain that president Obama displays towards Israel and particularly the Israeli prime minister Netanyahu, I do not expect Obama to cut off the aid flow. Congress, however, ought to be able to achieve this goal. There is no reason why the American people should be funding the Palestinians. If they don't want to work towards peace, then they can support themselves.
Think about these aid monies for a moment. In the first years of the aid flow, most of it ended up in the personal account of Yassir Arafat, then the leader of the Palestinians. Arafat somehow amassed a fortune of billions of dollars which went to his wife at his death. He got that by stealing the aid intended for his people. There is no indication that Abbas has stolen aid money on anything like that scale. Abbas is an anti-democratic tyrant, to be sure, but kleptocracy does not seem to be his practice. Instead, he just stays in office without any legitimacy; he is already in the tenth year of a four year term.
The aid money was intended to make the transition to a peaceful solution possible. Abbas and the Palestinians now say that the effort is over. Why would we aid them?
Now, given the disdain that president Obama displays towards Israel and particularly the Israeli prime minister Netanyahu, I do not expect Obama to cut off the aid flow. Congress, however, ought to be able to achieve this goal. There is no reason why the American people should be funding the Palestinians. If they don't want to work towards peace, then they can support themselves.
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