Late Tuesday afternoon and shortly after UN Ambassador Nikki Haley officially announced U.S. foreign aid cuts to Pakistan over terrorism sponsorship, President Trump called out the Palestinians for walking away from peace talks. In doing so, he threatened to withhold financial aid.
It's not only Pakistan that we pay billions of dollars to for nothing, but also many other countries, and others. As an example, we pay the Palestinians HUNDRED OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year and get no appreciation or respect. They don’t even want to negotiate a long overdue...
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018
...peace treaty with Israel. We have taken Jerusalem, the toughest part of the negotiation, off the table, but Israel, for that, would have had to pay more. But with the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018
The President, who also just announced cuts to the UN budget, isn't bluffing.
Not only does the Palestinian Authority and many of its people show disrespect to the United States through regular flag burning and chants of "death to American," billions of dollars have been paid to terrorists and their families for murdering Israelis and Americans.
The Palestinian Authority has paid out some NIS 4 billion — or $1.12 billion — over the past four years to terrorists and their families, a former director general of the Ministry of Strategic Affairs and ex-head of the army’s intelligence and research division told a top Knesset panel on Monday.
Setting out the figures, Brig.-Gen (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser told the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that the longer the period for which a Palestinian security prisoner is jailed, “the higher the salary… Anyone who has sat in prison for more than 30 years gets NIS 12,000 ($3,360) per month,” said Kuperwasser, according to the (Hebrew) NRG website. “When they’re released, they get a grant and are promised a job at the Palestinian Authority. They get a military rank that’s determined according to the number of years they’ve served in jail.”
"Pay for slay" is an issue President Trump has addressed with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and a consideration being weighed by the U.S. when it comes to peace talks.
"President Trump emphasized the importance of making a clear commitment to preventing inflammatory rhetoric and to stopping incitement, and to continue strengthening efforts to combat terrorism. President Trump raised his concerns about payments to Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails who have committed terrorist acts, and to their families, and emphasized the need to resolve this issue," a readout of a May White HOuse meeting between Abbas and Trump states.
Given the track record of the administration's aid cuts in the President's first year, there's no doubt cuts for the Palestinian Authority are on the table for review.
Pres Trump just threatened full aid cutoff to Pal Auth if they don't end temper tantrum and get back to talks. Comes a few hrs after Haley made similar threat about UNRWA (UN org that deals w/ Pal refugees).
— Omri Ceren (@omriceren) January 2, 2018
In other words, this is a policy push. They're deadly serious about it. https://t.co/ixduo2tP1Z
Stay tuned.