Ros-Lehtinen Caves in, Give PA Terrorists $200 Million in US Funds

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palestinian-terroristsThe Palestinian Authority will receive some $200 million in frozen US aid dollars after top House Republican Ileana Ros-Letinen ended her brief hold on the money.

Ros-Lehtinen, chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, informed the Obama administration she would release $50 million in economic support funds for the Palestinian Security Forces and $148 million in other assistance.

Ros-Lehtinen cited the administration’s certification that payment of the funds were in the ‘national security interests of the United States’ as well as word that the government of Israel did not object to the assistance.

But some view Jerusalem’s silence on the matter, on the heels of Jerusalem freezing tax revenues to the PA, as reason enough to question the administration’s assertion the resumption of funds is in line with Israeli interests.

Many nationalist politicians in Israel say the Obama administration is using its promised veto of the PA bid at the UN Security Council to leverage Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu into not pursuing Israel’s true interests. The implied threat of not following through with the promised veto, they say, is effectively ‘holding a gun’ to Israel’s head.

Ros-Lehtinen had blocked the funds in late August – shortly before PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas submitted his application for statehood recognition based on pre-1967 lines to the UN Security Council the following month.

At the time the lawmaker placed an “informational hold” on the money, seeking explanatory material from the administration. The PA pursued the move – and subsequent unilateral moves at the world body – despite strong objections from the United States and Israel.

The PA has received roughly $500 million a year from the US alone in recent years. No explanation of how funds to the Palestinian Liberation Organization benefits the ‘national security of the United States’ were offered.

However, funds to Ramallah begin to flow despite Abbas continuing to be at loggerheads with the Obama administration over his insistance on making unilateral moves – as well as his seeking rapproachment Hamas – defined as a terror organization by both Israel and the US.

US officials also recently stopped $60 million in aid to UNESCO after it admitted the PA as a full member, and have promised to freeze funds to any other UN agency that admits the PA as well.

Ros-Lehtinen said she opposes any attempts to change US law that requires a freeze of American funds to any UN entity that gives membership PLO.

“That is the right policy, and it must continue in order to deter other U.N. entities from following in UNESCO’s footsteps,” Ros-Lehtinen said.

But funds for the PLO are flowing despite Ramallah’s continuing to butt heads with the Obama administration, leading critics question why the administration’s 1,000 page brief was accepted at face value.

Or why hearings examining the veracity of claims US national security interests were genuinely being served by funding the PLO – which uses US monies to pay pensions to terrorists in Israeli prisoners – weren’t convened.

Read more: Israel National News

{Israel National News/Matzav.com Newscenter}


8 COMMENTS

  1. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen may be pro-Israel but she is one of the very few Republicans who has signed on to the “Respect for Marriage Act”, whose purpose is to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act.

  2. She is “pro-Israel”? She just gave the go ahead to give the PA hundreds of millions of dollars. And what do you think the PA will use that money for? ….One Guess….

    Not Smart, and with “pro-Israel” friends like her, who needs the PA?

  3. Caving in to pressure is worse than doing nothing! She didn’t have to stop the funds, but once she did, she is showing we are too weak to fight their injustices!

  4. Politicians are just that – politicians. They do what’s in their own best interests. Main thing is getting voted in and after that – pot luck. That’s why it’s hard to understand how people put their faith in any politician, get all excited and really believe anything that comes out of their mouths. But, we know they’re put under much pressure and unless they have real genuine principles, they cave. Security of their job comes first. No one to trust except the One Above.

  5. From reading between the lines. I’m under the impression that Obama is th one that demanded the releasing of the money. I guess the U.S. has spare cash at the moment. And so why not use it to fund terrorists? Abas already plans on using some of The U.S. money he has in his possession to build apartments for the freed animal murderers. And this is a man to trust with our tax paying money?

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