US President Joe Biden’s administration on Wednesday announced the restoration of $235 million in US assistance to the Palestinians, including to the controversial United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), prompting concerned statements from Israel.
“Israel’s position is that the organization in its current form perpetuates the conflict and does not contribute to its resolution,” Israel’s Foreign Ministry commented. The statement said that the resumption of aid to UNRWA should be accompanied by “substantial and necessary changes in the nature, goals, and conduct of the organization.”
Many critics accuse UNWRA of exaggerating the number of Palestinian refugees and having a vested interest in the continuation of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Following an HonestReporting petition, then-US secretary of state Mike Pompeo revealed the actual number of refugees in January. According to American estimates, less than 200,000 Palestinians displaced in the 1948 War of Independence are still alive.
The refugee agency is set to receive $150 million. In addition, the White House plans to transfer $75 million in economic and development assistance to the West Bank and Gaza, as well as $10 million for peacebuilding programs.
Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics has announced that the global Jewish population has reached levels last seen nearly a century ago. The announcement – made on the eve of Israel’s annual Holocaust memorial day, Yom HaShoah – revealed that by the beginning of 2020, the world’s Jewish population had risen to 14.8 million, a level last seen in 1925, over a decade before the beginning of the Holocaust.
The figure still falls short of pre-Shoah numbers, with the world Jewish population numbering some 16.6 million at its peak in 1939. At that time, approximately 450,00 Jews lived in the Holy Land, then governed by the British. By Israel’s inception in 1948, however, the Holocaust had decimated the global Jewish population to 11.5 million, with some 650,000 residing in the Jewish state.
In recent years, Israel has overtaken the United States as the world’s largest Jewish community, with almost 7 million Jews living in the country.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned that Israel does not consider itself restricted by a possible renewed nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, and announced that the Jewish state has an obligation to halt Iran’s path to reaching nuclear weapons capabilities.
Referring to negotiations held with the intention of bringing the United States back on board with the 2015 nuclear deal, in return for Iran agreeing to respect its commitments, Netanyahu declared that “a deal with Iran that threatens us with annihilation will not obligate us.”
“A nuclear agreement with Iran is again on the table, but history has taught us that agreements like this with extremist regimes are worth as much as garlic peel,” warned Netanyahu. “To our best friends I say: an agreement with Iran which paves its way to nuclear weapons that threaten us with destruction, an agreement like this will not bind us.”
In a call with Jordan’s King Abdullah II, US President Joe Biden “affirmed that the United States supports a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” a White House statement said.
The renewal of US assistance to the Palestinians is part of a wider new Middle East policy by the Biden Administration that is perceived by many as aiming to directly counter the policies of the previous administration led by Donald Trump.
“We plan to restart US economic, development, and humanitarian assistance for the Palestinian people,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced on Wednesday. Blinken’s announcement of a $235 million package, with some $150 million earmarked for UNRWA, is being widely regarded as designed to initiate the reinstating of ties with the Palestinian Authority in the aftermath of the Trump era.
While Israel announced its grave concern at the decision, the United Nations, UNRWA, and the Palestinians all moved to publicly welcome the decision.
HonestReporting has organized an exclusive trip to the Syrian border, where individuals can observe the prevailing security reality and have their pressing questions answered.
Itinerary:
- Travel to the Oz 77 memorial, which commemorates the Yom Kippur War and overlooks the Valley of Tears, where some of the fiercest battles took place;
- Visit the Monument to Eli Cohen, the noted Israeli spy that infiltrated the highest echelons of power in Syria before getting caught and being executed. The site is located on an IDF special operations training facility in the Golan Heights;
- Tour the Israel-Syria border, where participants can view the town of Quneitra and a destroyed Syrian military building;
- Have free time at Ein Zivan, home of the De Karina Boutique Chocolate Factory and various other shops.
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