Israel Cracks Down on UNRWA

On January 30, two new Israeli laws will go into effect intended to prevent the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) from operating in areas under Israel’s control. The proximate cause for the legislation is the widespread participation of UNRWA employees in the October 7 attacks, and the determination that over 2,000 of them are also members of Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad. But Israelis have also come to realize a far more serious problem: the group’s purpose is to prolong the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Worse still, in Gaza—as Shany Mor has written—UNRWA takes the responsibilities of education and welfare out of the hands of Hamas, allowing it to focus entirely on terror.

Maurice Hirsch explains how this new law will work:

UNRWA operates in Israel, Gaza, Judea, and Samaria at the invitation of Israel. Following [its] request, Israel provided UNRWA with a status similar to that of other UN organizations. These special privileges include substantial tax exemptions, special UNRWA-registered vehicles, and foreign staff. Israel even turned a blind eye to building infractions in UNRWA’s main logistical compound in Jerusalem.

The legislation, passed by the Knesset, to which the government must adhere, is very clear: as of January 30, 2025, UNRWA will no longer be able to function in Israel, Gaza, Judea, or Samaria. The agency will no longer enjoy tax exemptions or other trappings associated with being a recognized organization.

Despite having been given sufficient notice, terror-infested UNRWA is refusing to wrap up its operations and transfer its functions to other actors. By its actions, it would seem that UNRWA believes that it can force itself upon Israel, irrespective of the new legislation.

By refusing to accept this reality and smoothly pass its functions onto an appropriate alternate body, UNRWA is again doing a disservice to the people to whom it provides services.

Read more at Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs

More about: Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, UNRWA

American Middle East Policy Should Focus Less on Stability and More on Weakening Enemies

Feb. 10 2025

To Elliott Abrams, Donald Trump’s plan to remove the entire population of Gaza while the Strip is rebuilt is “unworkable,” at least “as a concrete proposal.” But it is welcome insofar as “its sheer iconoclasm might lead to a healthy rethinking of U.S. strategy and perhaps of Arab and Israeli policies as well.” The U.S., writes Abrams, must not only move beyond the failed approach to Gaza, but also must reject other assumptions that have failed time and again. One is the commitment to an illusory stability:

For two decades, what American policymakers have called “stability” has meant the preservation of the situation in which Gaza was entirely under Hamas control, Hizballah dominated Lebanon, and Iran’s nuclear program advanced. A better term for that situation would have been “erosion,” as U.S. influence steadily slipped away and Washington’s allies became less secure. Now, the United States has a chance to stop that process and aim instead for “reinforcement”: bolstering its interests and allies and actively weakening its adversaries. The result would be a region where threats diminish and U.S. alliances grow stronger.

Such an approach must be applied above all to the greatest threat in today’s Middle East, that of a nuclear Iran:

Trump clearly remains open to the possibility (however small) that an aging [Iranian supreme leader Ali] Khamenei, after witnessing the collapse of [his regional proxies], mulling the possibility of brutal economic sanctions, and being fully aware of the restiveness of his own population, would accept an agreement that stops the nuclear-weapons program and halts payments and arms shipments to Iran’s proxies. But Trump should be equally aware of the trap Khamenei might be setting for him: a phony new negotiation meant to ensnare Washington in talks for years, with Tehran’s negotiators leading Trump on with the mirage of a successful deal and a Nobel Peace Prize at the end of the road while the Iranian nuclear-weapons program grows in the shadows.

Read more at Foreign Affairs

More about: Iran, Middle East, U.S. Foreign policy