"In a recent webinar for Americans for Peace Now (APN), the new U.S. ambassador to Israel, Thomas Nides, discussed his vision for the Middle East. Among the topics he addressed was the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, better known as UNRWA. He declared that he didn’t believe giving money to UNRWA hurts the security of Israel...
Biden is following the Obama administration’s playbook of 'tough love' vis-à-vis Israel, rushing to embrace Iran and a perilous nuclear deal that has terrified Arabs and Israelis alike. Support for Palestinian causes like UNRWA, as well as Nides’ hysteria about Israeli construction in the West Bank, are sops thrown to the shrinking number of ideologues who think the world revolves around Palestine.
But the one place where Palestine does increasingly matter is in American politics, where the issue has been taken up by the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. It is unclear how promoting the Palestinian ideology—that claims they are entitled to return to places once occupied by parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents which are now in Israel, and in the process transform Israel into a Jewish minority state—serves U.S. policy, much less the cause of peace. Pouring more money into UNRWA is bad all around as it is an unaccountable black hole. Ultimately, Americans’ tax money would be better spent promoting independent civil organizations and private-sector growth."