The United States Congress is right to withhold aid the Palestinian Authority. Because of its arrangement with Hamas (a terrorist organization dedicated to wiping Israel of the map), its own refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state and most recently Mahmoud Abbas’s ugly diatribe at the United Nations last month, all provide ample reasons for the U.S. to not fund ($200 million) the PA.
Meanwhile the Obama Administration is scrambling to unblock the money. But if ever there’s a time when the Administration should stand shoulder to shoulder with Congress, it is on foreign affairs and in this particular case, boycotting the PA will send a strong message.
After last month’s spectacle at the U.N., where Abbas stated that a future Palestine should include East Jerusalem, including the Jewish Quarter and the Western Wall and omitted any Jewish links to the land of the Bible, it’s absolutely the right time be clear on what the U.S.’s position is vis-à-vis the PA and Israel.
While Abbas was fomenting anger, Bibi was offering peace. Indeed, moments after Abbas’s speech, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on Abbas to meet with him at the U.N. saying…
“Now we’re in the same city. We’re in the same building. So let’s meet here today, in the United Nations. Who’s there to stop us? What is there to stop us? Let’s listen to one another. I’ll tell you my concerns. You’ll tell me yours, and with God’s help we’ll find a common ground for peace. I cannot make peace alone. I cannot make peace without you.”
Yet Abbas refused. Rather he praised his “reconciliation with Hamas and while he condemned Israeli attacks on Gaza and made no mention of the thousands of rockets fired from there at Israeli civilians.
This is not a man who should be rewarded for his actions. This is a man, who leads a government that should be condemned and sanctioned.
Abe Novick is a writer and communications consultant and can be reached at abe@abenovick.com