Question. Can Any Good Come of USA Disengagement From the Palestinian Authority? - by Sheri Oz

...In view of potential imminent collapse, will Israel step up and do what some individuals in the PA have told me they pray for? Will Israel save the Palestinian Authority from itself and declare sovereignty over Judea and Samaria (if not Gaza, which is an entirely different matter), giving citizenship to those who wish to declare loyalty to the Jewish state in return for the freedom to earn a good living, raise healthy families and achieve their personal ambitions? In other words, to live as Middle Eastern Arabs and non-Arab minorities outside of Israel can only dream of?

Sheri Oz..
Israel Diaries..
04 February '19..

First, the USA stopped funding UNRWA. Then they stopped funding USAID, the body through which funds were directed to the various American and international humanitarian aide organizations that provided much needed help and services to the people living under the Palestinian Authority (PA). And finally, just a few days ago, the last of the military personnel supporting the security services in the PA were withdrawn. According to a local source, only one American military advisor remains and that is because he bought a house in Bethlehem for personal reasons.

The PA administration has not fought these reductions in funding. In fact, a Congressional study entitled, US Foreign Aid to the Palestinians, quoted a source that suggested that Palestinian leaders

have determined “that the limited U.S. foreign assistance currently received is far outweighed by the potential liability to which they would be subjected if they were to accept it.”

And what is that liability? In October 2018, the American Anti-Terrorism Clarification Act was amended in such a way as to declare that foreign bodies not generally under American legal jurisdiction can be considered to be so if they accept American funds. The Palestinian Authority decided they stood to lose more money in claims submitted to the courts by survivors of American victims of Palestinian Arab terrorism than they gain with American aid.

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