No More Aid to Palestinians, Unless They Make a Deal with Israel
Editor CEC comments: On Thursday, in The Atlantic news story, our President told Jewish leaders that the Palestinians would not receive any more aid from the U.S., unless they made a deal with Israel. He did not revealed by what authority the President is cutting off the humanitarian aid to the Arab Muslims and Christian, or what kind of “deal” he expects them to settle for.
Our President made the statement during a conference call placed in anticipation of the Jewish New Year, in which he communicated with a number of American Jewish leaders. His remarks arrive on the heels of his administration’s decision to cut funds both to the Palestinians’ dedicated UN agency, UNRWA, and direct aid to the Palestinians themselves. To that end, The President noted during the conference call, that the funding would be reinstated only if the Palestinians reach an agreement with the Jewish state.
We Americans, many of us “Christians” voted this man into office, so we are responsible before God for his every act! If he contrives to starve to death, say, half or a million Palestinians, the blood will be on our hands, especially since we know in advance of his plan. He has just told us!
As heard in the recorded call, aired by Israel’s Channel 10, the President said, “I stopped massive amounts of money that we were paying to the Palestinians and Palestinian leaders. The United States was paying them tremendous amounts of money. And I say, ‘You’ll get money, but we’re not paying until you make a deal. If you don’t make a deal, we’re not paying.’”
On a personal note, our President added, “I am a very proud father of a Jewish daughter, Ivanka,” along with referring to the call’s host, his son-in-law and senior advisor, Jared Kushner.
According to The Atlantic article, A U.S. Funding Review Is Hurting Aid Groups and Palestinians, U.S. aid this year to Palestinians takes three main forms: “About $320 million goes toward humanitarian work and projects, and is disbursed by the U.S. Agency for International Development; $368 million goes to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA); and approximately $36 million helps the Palestinian Authority with security.”
This adds up to $724 million per year, according to our math, and that’s a big number to us, but is it significant in the U.S. money-give-away game? (Reuters may not have thought so two years ago when it published a story entitled, Why Does the United States Give So Much Money to Israel?)
Quoting The Atlantic: “The United States and Israel have made it official: The two countries signed a new 10-year military-assistance deal on Wednesday, representing the single largest pledge of its kind in American history. The pact, laid out in a Memorandum of Understanding, will be worth $38 billion over the course of a decade, an increase of roughly 27 percent on the money pledged in the last agreement, which was signed in 2007. The diplomatic and military alliance between the two countries is longstanding: Even prior to this week, Israel was, according to the Congressional Research Service, “the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign assistance since World War II.” (Sep 15, 2016)
Let us compare Israel’s numbers with humanitarian aid to Palestine, which we are told is to amount to about $750 million this year. Israel is getting some $3.8 billion per year for the next 10 years, or $38 billion! Thus, according to Atlantic Magazine’s numbers, Israel receives U.S. military aid equal to $4.74 for every $1dollar of humanitarian aid being given to Palestine! That’s $10.4 million per day for Israel’s warfare! And our President tells us he is cutting off the humanitarian aid to Palestine?!
Further, where did our President get this legal authority to spend or not spend taxpayer money to starve Palestinians, or to give war weapons, even F-16s, to their Israeli jailers? Not from the US Constitution and certainly not from our God. Remember, bills for revenue must be originated in the Congress; that is our Constitution. Presidents are executors of spending laws, never originators. But in a larger sense, we are responsible before God for every death-dealing event handed out by our President, seeing as he is the man we voted in to do our will. The blood is on our hands, especially those of us who voted for him!
And all this talk about aid to Palestine is very suspect to begin with. Do we really know how and to whom the money is distributed in Gaza and the West bank? Does all or any of it really get there, or is that, too, siphoned off to Israeli controllers of every act of the Arab population? I defy anyone to tell me how they know one dime of UNHRA money or direct aid money is distributed to the half-starved families of occupied Palestine? Finally, I ask my readers: Do you see yourselves as responsible before Jesus for what is being done to the Philistines of Gaza? What would Jesus say? Ask him!- CEC
Links: https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/08/usaid-gaza/567032/
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/09/united-states-israel-memorandum-of-understanding-military-aid/500192/
https://vimeo.com/59933668
