The Biden administration's course of action has thus far simply been to cancel everything the Trump administration did. Whether we agreed or disagreed with former President Trump, he is a President who thought outside the box, otherwise, these historical Abraham Accords would never have happened. This is what the Biden administration needs; its decision-making is stagnant because it is only returning us to the pre-Trump era, especially with its Middle Eastern foreign policy, which very few now support.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter
The Biden administration plans to provide $235 million in aid to the Palestinians, reinstating part of the assistance package that was axed by his predecessor, President Donald Trump. Of this budget, $150 million will go to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), $75 million in US economic and development assistance and $10 million is earmarked for peace-building programs.
The Biden administration should have made reinstating Palestinian aid conditional. This would mean that if the Palestinian Authority did not actively participate in finding a realistic solution to the conflict rather than rejecting out of hand each and every peace initiative, the UNRWA would threaten to pull out. This renewal should also require that UNRWA textbooks are monitored and faculty members are screened.
The Biden administration says that it has a commitment from the UNRWA of "zero tolerance" for antisemitism, racism or discrimination. The administration also says that the resumption of aid aimed to restore negotiations around a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. But how can such promises be kept if the UNRWA is well-known for its mismanagement and for antisemitic content in its textbooks? Former US ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, slammed the UNRWA as one of the most "corrupt" and "counterproductive" agencies on the international stage. It was an Israeli watchdog who discovered the incitement to violence and hatred in the UNRWA educational textbooks, not those who run the UNRWA.
The Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se), an Israeli watchdog that analyzes Palestinian textbooks, found that children were asked to do mathematics problems using martyrs from the First Intifada to calculate equations, students were told to "defend the motherland with blood," and the instructors were claiming that Israel deliberately dumps radioactive and toxic waste in the West Bank. This shows that incitement to violence is not just embedded in the educational curriculum, but is being promulgated by the instructors as well. The UNRWA must monitor not only the curriculum but its faculty members too.
This dangerous education is not only generating hate towards the Jewish state, but also against Arab states, mainly the Arab Gulf states. Arab Gulf states endure continued flak from the Palestinians, from the burning of their flags and pictures of their rulers to the repeated accusation of treason despite the billions of dollars spent by these countries in support of the Palestinians. Insults and hostility against Arab Gulf states is not coming only from adults, but much of it from children, which points to an education that teaches hatred.
The Arab Gulf states are keen to raise their children to peace, while the Palestinian Authority insists on raising the next generation to hate. This gap will widen even more after the Abraham Accords. For instance, the UAE 2020 Islamic studies textbook praises the peace initiative with Israel by stating that cooperation and peace are fundamental Islamic values and UAE national characteristics. Another example is a social studies textbook, which mentions Judaism as belonging in the Arab region. This approach differs sharply from how the Palestinian are raising their children, which will further deepen the divisions between the two nations. We have an Emirati government that raises its children on coexistence, tolerance and peace, and a Palestinian Authority that raises its children on hatred, conflict and treason.
The Biden administration must understand that the post-Trump era is different from the pre-Trump one, especially now that the Abraham Accords have been signed. Having a foreign policy that is merely undoing Trump's work and turning back the clock will do little to progress peace in the Middle East.
Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!
