Written By: Tim Taylor
On Friday, August 31st, the US State Department announced it would end its transfer of $350 million dollars to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in the Near East, also known as UNRWA. Earlier this year, The State Department withheld $65 million of the $125 million dollars it agreed to pay, but taking a page from President Trump himself, the Department issued a statement saying it will relinquish its financial contributions to the organization until other countries involved begin to pay into it at the same level and until it begins to care for refugees from other countries instead of just Palestine. As we can see, the actions were taken by the State Department fall directly in line with the President's campaign promises and goals of decreasing its involvement in UN affairs, revamping support for our ally state of Israel, and making sure other countries are put into check by reorganizing trade deals and financial donations.
The UNRWA was founded on December 8th, 1949 with a mission of helping replace refugees from war-torn Palestine and help them obtain jobs on public projects, the organization has grown immensely to provide healthcare, education and other social services leading it to have a $1.3 billion-dollar budget as of 2010-2011. Jared Kushner, Senior Advisor to the President, played a large role in the successful halt of donations citing a need to compel Palestinian politicians to drop harsh demands they have laid out over the past few years, although many on the left-wing side of the aisle in the U.S. and around the world have criticized the move and called for the funds to be reinstated. “The United States will no longer commit further funding to this irredeemably flawed operation,” State Department Spokeswoman Heather Nauert said, prompting Husam Zomlot, head of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), to respond with “By endorsing the most extreme Israeli narrative on all issues including the rights of more than five million Palestinian refugees, the US administration has lost its status as peacemaker and is damaging not only an already volatile situation but the prospects for future peace in the middle east”.
The State Departments actions have gotten plenty of praise from conservatives here and abroad. The Palestinian government has encouraged a multitude of continuous attacks on the sovereign state of Israel, leading to the deaths of IDF Soldiers, and countless civilian men, women, and children, which the liberal media refuses to report on and has even gone as far as to defend Hamas and other terrorist organizations in the region. The United States has always been seen as having an obligation to help poorer countries especially in the middle east, but we can only choose to do so on our terms and stop using corrupt middle-men like the United Nations who allow dictatorial regimes like Iran and Palestine to dictate where funding and effort is put in, completely undermining the progress towards democracy American soldiers have laid down their lives for over the last few decades.
Comments