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U.S. Should Bypass Palestinian Authority to Provide Aid to Gaza
(The National-Abu Dhabi) Mike Pompeo and Sander Gerber - There has been a recent push in the U.S. to utilize the Palestinian Authority as a "go-between" to ensure that aid to Gaza reaches civilians and is not pocketed by Hamas. Yet any reliance on the PA to be the broker of stability in the Arab-Israeli conflict is ill-considered, because it means partnering with a group implicated in terrorist activities. The Taylor Force Act, passed by Congress in 2018, cuts U.S. funding to the PA until it stops what has been described as a "pay to slay" program. The program issues stipends to the families of Palestinians killed or imprisoned for crimes committed against Israel, and has, in effect, subsidized terrorist activity. If foreign governments are serious about assisting the Palestinian people, they should not rely on groups who have remained only tenuously off the State Department's list of Foreign Terror Organizations. Mike Pompeo is a former U.S. secretary of state. Sander Gerber is a fellow of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.