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At USAID, Funding for Terror-Tied Groups and Internal Hostility toward Israel Goes Back Years
(Washington Free Beacon) Adam Kredo - Current and former U.S. officials who worked closely with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) say they watched for years as it funneled millions of dollars to anti-Israel advocacy groups and entities linked to terrorism. "For those who believe in a strong U.S.-Israel relationship, elements of USAID have been problematic for years," said a former State Department official who worked with USAID during the Biden administration. "There was even a lack of embarrassment among some USAID staffers about being associated with terrorist organizations." In November 2022, USAID awarded $100,000 to a Palestinian activist group whose leaders hailed the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a designated terror group. Just before Hamas's Oct. 7 assault on Israel, USAID handed $900,000 to a terror charity in Gaza involved with the son of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. "It's more than just problematic grants to anti-Israel organizations," the former official said. "It's also their role in the internal approval processes and statements within the administration. There's an entire bureaucratic process they're a part of. They carry out their obstructionist ideology on that front as well."