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The Corrupt Palestinian Authority Must Not Be a Part of Any Saudi-Israel Deal
(The Hill) Mike Pompeo and Sander Gerber - While Saudi Arabia desires any normalization deal with Israel to benefit the Palestinian people, it is financially and morally irresponsible to distribute funds through the corrupt, terrorist-funding PA. Instead, the creation of a new Saudi-led international aid organization would enable the Saudis to tangibly improve Palestinian lives, foster a civil society more amenable to Arab-Israeli normalization outside of the PA's repression, and create a much-needed alternative to the PA's endemic misgovernance. Providing funds to the Palestinian Authority, an organization that continues to reward Palestinian terrorism, would undercut the peaceful message and implications of normalization. It is the PA's intransigence, repression and cronyism that holds back an even deeper and wider peace between Israel and the Arab and Muslim worlds. It is past time to stop funding Palestinian aid through an organization like the Palestinian Authority that has no intention of yielding a return on that investment, and whose corruption and misgovernance works directly at cross-purposes with shared U.S., Israeli and Saudi goals of promoting peace, prosperity and stability. Mike Pompeo is a former U.S. secretary of state and director of the CIA. Sander Gerber, a member of the steering committee of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, is also a member of the State Department's Middle East Partnership for Peace Act (MEPPA) advisory board.