Anybody following the news from Washington in recent weeks knows that President Donald Trump and his government efficiency czar Elon Musk have been draining the swamps of wasteful spending. But of course, this is not just about dollars but also about the axing of programs that wield a radical ideological agenda and even anti-American policies.
It is now time to similarly cancel radical anti-Western, anti-Israel, and even antisemitic funding boondoggles on the international level. Follow the money, and eliminate funding for the most nefarious and subversive activities.
Washington has made a good start on this by acting to shut down the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which for years has funneled millions of dollars to anti-Israel advocacy groups and entities linked to terrorism.
Some of the terror-tied funding initiatives are publicly known. In November 2022, for instance, USAID awarded $100,000 (360,000 ILS) to a Palestinian activist group whose leaders hailed the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a designated terror group. Just six days before Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023 assault on Israel, USAID handed $900,000 (3.24 million ILS) to a terror charity in Gaza involved with the son of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.
Worse still, under former president Joe Biden's pick to run the agency, Samantha Power, USAID has taken the lead in accusing Israel of deliberately blocking Gazan aid deliveries, which Hamas is known to steal for its own use and for black market sales that fund its terror activities. USAID staffers went as far as to urge the Biden State Department to end military aid to Israel.
Also praiseworthy is the Trump administration's early action to cut off funding for UNRWA which has a long record of glorifying terrorism and the rejection of Israel in its textbooks and schools. We now know of agency employees who participated in Hamas terrorist activities and of agency facilities that have been used as rocket storage and launch sites by Hamas. The complete dismantling of UNRWA is the next challenge. Its $1.5 billion budget can much better be spent on real refugee settlement and peacemaking.
Then there is the estimated $30 billion to $45 b. that the evil Islamist government of Qatar has invested in the US, infecting the worlds of American academia, media, and business, and clearly contributing to recent anti-American and anti-Israel protests.
A hard-nosed review and massive recalculation of global support for the Palestinian Authority is also long overdue.
The tens of billions of dollars invested in corrupt Palestinian authorities since the halcyon days of the Oslo Accords have not brought about the building of even one hospital or significant housing project, nor has the largesse encouraged political moderation and maturity of Palestinian leadership.
Just the opposite: Flush with wild amounts of international largesse with few strings attached, the Palestinian national movement has become ever-more aggressive and hostile to Israel over the past 30 years, making true compromise impossible.
One of the most egregious PA policies is "pay-for-slay," whereby Palestinian terrorists and their families are rewarded for the murder of Israelis on a sliding scale that prioritizes and glorifies the bloodiest attacks.
For example, Palestinian Media Watch has documented more than half a billion shekels in PA payments to Palestinian terrorists now being released by Israel in the horrifying terrorist-for-Israeli hostage trade deals. These terrorists have been paid by the PA ever since their arrests. PMW says that more than 300 of the 750 worst terrorists essentially are being released as millionaires.
All this raises questions about the enthusiasm of European countries and international aid agencies for paying for "rehabilitation" in Lebanon and Gaza. With Hezbollah still running Lebanon (under the cover of a fig-leaf Lebanese government) and Hamas still holding sway in Gaza (under cover of what might be a "reformed" PA government), should billions of dollars more in cement, steel, and gas be poured into these disaster zones?
Alas, we all know that nobody in the oh-so-concerned and very-humanitarian-minded international community, the biased-against-Israel international community, is going to invest in the rehabilitation of northern and southern Israel, areas that have been devastated and depopulated by Hezbollah and Hamas attacks.
But should the unhealthy habits-of-old subsidize the rearming and rehabilitation of Hezbollah and Hamas? Should the US, Canada, or Germany really participate in international donor conference after international donor conference about pouring more cash down the drains of these terrorist-controlled territories?
