Trump Administration Withholds $65 Million from UNRWA after Inflammatory Abbas Speeches

Matthew RJ Brodsky joins Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Nina Larsen on i24News "Perspectives" with Tracy Alexander to discuss the Trump administration's decision to slash American funding to the UN Relief Works Agency (UNRWA), the corrupt UN agency ostensibly charged with providing for Palestinian refugees but which also provides cover for the Hamas terrorist group in Gaza among other abuses of its mandate. Brodsky explains why cutting its funding is in both America's and Israel's interest.

On one hand it appears to be a move designed to apply pressure on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the wake of his recent inflammatory and anti-Semitic speeches but on the other, it simply makes good business sense. Even if UNRWA were a useful organization - which it is not - at a minimum it is corrupt and mismanaged. If the U.S. provides the majority of funding then it has an interest in seeing how its money is being wasted at best or being put to terrorist-supporting causes at worst. This money is essentially American taxpayer charity donations that the government is not required to give. Meanwhile, UNRWA and the Palestinian national movement as currently constructed is not a cause that is in America's interest to support at this time, especially when doing the same thing for decades has only perpetuated the problem of the Palestinian leadership choosing not to negotiate or compromise with their own mythology.

UNRWA has long outlived its limited usefulness. It should be closed down and absorbed into the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC). Abbas needs to understand that hiding behind Europe and international bureaucracies is no substitute for compromise and direct negotiations.