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Source: https://nypost.com/2018/08/27/trump-is-busting-the-myths-that-prevent-middle-east-peace/
Slaying the Sacred Cows of Palestinian-Israeli Diplomacy
(New York Post) Benny Avni - Last week the State Department announced a $200 million cut in annual aid to the Palestinian Authority. Before that, America cut support to UNRWA, a body created in 1949 to tend to some 750,000 Arab refugees from the war Israel's neighbors launched to erase it off the map. UNRWA now handles aid to over 5 million Palestinians, while another UN agency deals with refugees everywhere else on the globe. Absurdly, Palestinian UNRWA clients living where the Palestinian Authority or Hamas has full control remain "refugees," despite Palestinian rule. Former Knesset member Einat Wilf, a vocal advocate of peace negotiations with the Palestinians, nevertheless calls for dismantling UNRWA. "UNRWA encourages radicalism. It keeps alive the dream that the pre-1948 status quo will return and that Israel as a Jewish state will be erased from the map. I'm not against aid to Palestinians, just against encouraging that dream," she said. In the long run, peacemaking will succeed if it addresses 21st-century facts, rather than 1948 hopes.