The Trump administration is preparing a plan to cut off aid to the Palestinians in response to a recently passed United Nations resolution denouncing the United States decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, according to two sources familiar with the planning.
U.S. officials will deliver a long-delayed message to Palestinian leadership this week that unless they halt “pay to play” schemes that reward their allies with access and influence over the U.S. Congress, the Trump administration will make moves that could cut off funding, the sources said.
“There will be some action, probably by not extending certain aid, that could take place in the next week or so,” one of the sources said.
But White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders would not confirm whether a formal announcement was planned, saying only that “our position hasn’t changed.”
U.S. lawmakers have threatened punitive measures against the Palestinians for passing the U.N. resolution, which calls for an end to Israeli settlement building and recognizes that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.
The lawmakers, citing the financial contribution of the United States and its European allies, have previously stopped short of cutting off aid outright but have suggested that the United States make such moves administratively.
While the U.S. government has withheld tens of millions of dollars in assistance, it continues to provide some $350 million in annual bilateral assistance to the Palestinian Authority.
U.S. officials said privately that the administration may withhold a large tranche of annual funding, potentially $200 million, that funds the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). The United States and Israel oppose the one-state solution as being one-sided toward the Palestinians, and they have called on the Palestinians to take steps to become economically viable before being granted the right to statehood.
Israel’s U.N. ambassador, Danny Danon, blamed the Palestinian leadership in large part for failing to make peace with Israel, saying that the “continued and flagrant disregard for President Trump’s decisions on Jerusalem and the settlements have forced us to limit U.S. aid to the Palestinians.”
Israel in recent days approved construction of 2,000 new settler homes in the West Bank, and an illegal outpost in the West Bank was built to accommodate settlers’ “wedding parties” and “bat mitzvahs,” Israeli media have reported.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, meanwhile, sent a letter to Security Council members ahead of the vote, urging them not to support the resolution. In it, she wrote: “Peace will not come through UN action, and America will not be a party to that farce.”
Danon said he would propose a resolution in the Security Council denouncing the United Nations for allowing the Palestinian resolution, which he said would be “stronger” than the action taken by the U.S. Congress.
With Washington’s support, Jordan is pushing for a Security Council vote to be delayed. Its U.N. ambassador, Dina Kawar, met with her counterparts on Wednesday to try and make sure that the United States had its back if there were an attempt to delay the vote, two diplomats said.
The Trump administration has not formally come out against the U.N. measure, but Haley said earlier in the week that “the United States will be taking names” on the resolution, and Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley has said that any decision not to withhold funding from the Palestinians should only come as a last resort.
The move to strip funding will be separate from a law passed by Congress in December last year and called the Taylor Force Act, which requires the State Department to make cuts in funding to the Palestinians until they end their payments to terrorists and their families.
“These are measures that the administration is willing to take in its foreign policy toolbox. It depends on the circumstances, and they have to be tailored to those circumstances. There is no single policy when it comes to foreign policy,” the official said.
“It depends on the circumstances, and they have to be tailored to those circumstances. There is no single policy when it comes to foreign policy.”
“These are measures that the administration is willing to take in its foreign policy toolbox. It depends on the circumstances, and they have to be tailored to those circumstances. There is no single policy when it comes to foreign policy.
These “measures” are the result of our elected representatives saying enough is enough. The Palestinian leadership, at every turn, has shown contempt for America and our leadership. Any effort to punish them is merited and deserved.
How much have the Palestinians’ demands cost in lost U.S. funds in just the last decade?
The Palestinian Authority (PA) received $2.3 billion in “aid” in 2015 (the latest year for which numbers are available) which the PA spent on “paying terrorists, suicide bombers, and their families.”
According to official PA budget figures released by former Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in 2013, Palestinian monthly income for 2015 totaled $428.25 million and their monthly expenses $746.95 million.
The $428 million monthly PA income, divided by the number of months in the year, comes out to over $26.3 million per month, every month, to pay salaries to their terrorist, suicide bombers and their families. If you calculate that into the $430 million per month, it comes out to about a million dollars per day and $2.3 billion per year.
It’s an easy calculation to make, but it’s a fact: since 2005, we have given the Palestinians over $4 billion. And what have we gotten in return? War, terrorism and financial support for terrorists. The Palestinians have made it clear – they prefer the money to the peace.
Congress and State Department officials are currently drawing up detailed measures that they hope will force the Palestinians to re-think their positions, but the White House is making clear that they will not allow the peace process to be “held hostage by a single, narrow issue.”
“The Taylor Force Act and other U.S. measures, combined with significant cuts in foreign aid funding, have created real pressure to get to the table and make the hard decisions necessary to resolve this conflict,” it said.
In a statement to Bloomberg News, Ambassador Dina Kawar said that “we will continue to defend and promote the interests of Jordan and the region against every threat.”
“We also see the Palestinian issue from a different perspective, which is one of the key factors shaping the Middle East and the entire region. We are fully committed to this issue, and believe that it requires a permanent solution,” she said.
According to a confidential poll conducted for Israeli television by Israeli Channel 10, 66 percent of Israelis think the Trump administration should veto the UN resolution. Some 90 percent of Israelis also consider the US administration “responsible” for the Palestinian escalation of violence in recent months. The US should not just veto, said Israel Galili, a professor of international relations, but should also impose harsh economic sanctions against the PA and encourage the EU to follow suit.
In an editorial published by the Jerusalem Post, a Palestinian journalist, Maher Abul Qumsan, wrote:
“The US decision to suspend its decision to abstain in the UN vote that was due to take place next week in New York… was unexpected. The reason behind the US decision seems that the US was pressured from within its own ranks to reconsider its policy in view of the Palestinian escalation and the increase in casualties among Palestinian civilians.”
The writer added that if American policymakers do not want a conflict with Israel, then they should end its “financial, political and diplomatic support” of the Palestinian Authority, and stop funding its terrorist education programs and the Palestinian military which are “terror camps” and “breeding grounds for terrorism.”
Another Palestinian resident of Beth
