It’s lately become de riguer for many seeking to come across as being in the know to suggest that it would be counterproductive to urge cutting international funding for the Palestinian Authority, because the Palestinian street would presumably go even wilder without the restraining hand of Mahmoud Abbas’s police force in play.
Certainly, being able to champion Israel and at the same time tout the positive value of its enemy would seem to be the height of sophistication.
Some have even taken to citing the Israeli government’s continuing role as the PA’s tax collector. But an op-ed article this week in the Wall Street Journal by Tzipi Hotovely, Israel’s deputy foreign minister, may well change the terms of debate.
Ms. Hotovely makes a powerful common sense argument for transparency with regard to international aid to the PA. She points out that most donor states are not aware that a full 20 percent of all aid – approximately $75 million –while ostensibly designated for humanitarian aid to Palestinians, is in fact used for monthly stipends to families of terrorists either killed or jailed in Israel.
Indeed, the Palestinian regime in Ramallah pays between $400 and $3,500 to each of those families. Can anyone doubt that terrorists find it easier to assume the risks involved in attacking Israel because they know their families will be taken care of?
Ms. Hotovely says the funds have become harder to track since the PA began funneling the funds to the Palestine Liberation Organization, which makes the direct payment to the terrorists’ families. She therefore urges that at the very least the PA be required to more closely account for the foreign funds it receives – which should, based on the PA’s present policies, lead to an appropriate proportional reduction in aid.
Here in the United States we are in the midst of a presidential campaign. We think the various candidates need to address the issue of U.S. funds supporting terrorism against one of America’s closest allies. Actually, it is illogical for our government not to condition the continuance of all aid on the cessation of any PA financial support that constitutes direct or indirect incitement.