Palestinians Must Lead the Fight to Reform UNRWA

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) was founded in 1949 to provide humanitarian assistance to Arab refugees from Israel’s war of independence. It has since become a corrupt and bloated institution as well as an enabler of terrorism, and its foremost goal is to maintain its own existence by keeping the descendants of those refugees in poverty in its camps. The only way it can be fixed, argues Bassem Eid, is if Palestinians pressure the Western nations that fund it to demand its reform:

As a proud Palestinian, I must take responsibility for what will happen to our people. We can no longer deny our responsibility for the future of our people. UNRWA, to continue its operation, depends on death and the visual suffering of five million Palestinians who continue to wallow in and around UNRWA facilities. The more Palestinians suffer, the more power goes to UNRWA, which allows it to raise unchecked humanitarian funds and purchase munitions. . . . The only agency that can abolish UNRWA is the UN General Assembly, which has never had the interests of the Palestinian people at heart. After all, the UN rakes in more than $1.2 billion a year as an “incentive” to continue our status as refugees.

A Western defunding of UNRWA [suggested by some] would allow nations like Qatar to enter the vacuum, leaving the West with no leverage over UNRWA policy. The point is [instead] to influence donor nations to reform UNRWA and predicate future aid to UNRWA on reasonable conditions.

Read more at Jerusalem Post

More about: Palestinian refugees, Qatar, United Nations, UNRWA

The Mass Expulsion of Palestinians Is No Solution. Neither Are Any of the Usual Plans for Gaza

Examining the Trump administration’s proposals for the people of Gaza, Danielle Pletka writes:

I do not believe that the forced cleansing of Gaza—a repetition of what every Arab country did to the hundreds of thousands of Arab Jews in 1948— is a “solution.” I don’t think Donald Trump views that as a permanent solution either (read his statement), though I could be wrong. My take is that he believes Gaza must be rebuilt under new management, with only those who wish to live there resettling the land.

The time has long since come for us to recognize that the establishment doesn’t have the faintest clue what to do about Gaza. Egypt doesn’t want it. Jordan doesn’t want it. Iran wants it, but only as cannon fodder. The UN wants it, but only to further its anti-Semitic agenda and continue milking cash from the West. Jordanians, Lebanese, and Syrians blame Palestinians for destroying their countries.

Negotiations with Hamas have not worked. Efforts to subsume Gaza under the Palestinian Authority have not worked. Rebuilding has not worked. Destruction will not work. A “two-state solution” has not arrived, and will not work.

So what’s to be done? If you live in Washington, New York, London, Paris, or Berlin, your view is that the same answers should definitely be tried again, but this time we mean it. This time will be different. . . . What could possibly make you believe this other than ideological laziness?

Read more at What the Hell Is Going On?

More about: Donald Trump, Gaza Strip, Palestinians