Congress Can Hold the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees Responsible for Its Cooperation with Hamas

During the May Gaza war, an official working for UNRWA—the UN organization that provides humanitarian assistance to descendants of Palestinian refugees—created a sensation by telling the truth, as Jonathan Schanzer and Richard Goldberg write:

Matthias Schmale, the director of operations for UNRWA in Gaza, told Israel’s Channel 12 that Israeli military operations during the war were carried out with “sophistication” and “precision.” This ran counter to the Hamas narrative that Israel was attacking Gaza indiscriminately. . . . Schmale also noted, to the surprise of the Israeli anchor interviewing him, that during “the eleven days of war, we did not run out of food, water, and supplies.”

Finally, Schmale conceded that UNRWA “cannot work in a place like Gaza without coordinating with the local authorities [i.e., Hamas]; that’s true for any autocratic regime of this nature.” . . . Not surprisingly, Hamas authorities soon declared Schmale to be persona non grata in the Gaza Strip. . . . His organization for more than a decade had toed the Hamas line, parroting the [terrorist group’s] false accusations against Israel.

Worse still, evidence accumulated that Hamas has been digging tunnels through which to attack Israel under UNRWA schools, and using the schools to store munitions—turning students into human shields. Since the White House has requested $150 million dollars in support for UNRWA, Congress has an opportunity to hold the agency accountable:

Bilateral assistance provided through the U.S. Agency for International Development is already subject to strict terrorist-vetting protocols. . . . The same standard, however, does not apply to multilateral assistance provided to UNRWA. Congress can change that quickly by tying aid to UNRWA to a simple requirement: UNRWA must first submit information about would-be beneficiaries and contractors to the State Department for terror vetting—and only release funds after receiving a stamp of approval.

Read more at Washington Examiner

More about: Congress, Gaza Strip, Hamas, UNRWA

Egypt Is Trapped by the Gaza Dilemma It Helped to Create

Feb. 14 2025

Recent satellite imagery has shown a buildup of Egyptian tanks near the Israeli border, in violation of Egypt-Israel agreements going back to the 1970s. It’s possible Cairo wants to prevent Palestinians from entering the Sinai from Gaza, or perhaps it wants to send a message to the U.S. that it will take all measures necessary to keep that from happening. But there is also a chance, however small, that it could be preparing for something more dangerous. David Wurmser examines President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi’s predicament:

Egypt’s abysmal behavior in allowing its common border with Gaza to be used for the dangerous smuggling of weapons, money, and materiel to Hamas built the problem that exploded on October 7. Hamas could arm only to the level that Egypt enabled it. Once exposed, rather than help Israel fix the problem it enabled, Egypt manufactured tensions with Israel to divert attention from its own culpability.

Now that the Trump administration is threatening to remove the population of Gaza, President Sisi is reaping the consequences of a problem he and his predecessors helped to sow. That, writes Wurmser, leaves him with a dilemma:

On one hand, Egypt fears for its regime’s survival if it accepts Trump’s plan. It would position Cairo as a participant in a second disaster, or nakba. It knows from its own history; King Farouk was overthrown in 1952 in part for his failure to prevent the first nakba in 1948. Any leader who fails to stop a second nakba, let alone participates in it, risks losing legitimacy and being seen as weak. The perception of buckling on the Palestine issue also resulted in the Egyptian president Anwar Sadat’s assassination in 1981. President Sisi risks being seen by his own population as too weak to stand up to Israel or the United States, as not upholding his manliness.

In a worst-case scenario, Wurmser argues, Sisi might decide that he’d rather fight a disastrous war with Israel and blow up his relationship with Washington than display that kind of weakness.

Read more at The Editors

More about: Egypt, Gaza War 2023