"The U.S. is Unrwa's largest single donor, contributing more than $360 million of the agency's annual $1.25 billion budget. Historically, U.S. support to Unrwa has been untouchable despite the agency's role keeping Palestinians in social stasis, providing health, education and welfare services while undermining resettlement efforts and fomenting rejectionism-thereby perpetuating the Palestinians' 'refugee' status for decades.
The Trump administration is not the only factor militating for change. The titanic crisis created by the Syrian civil war, which has produced millions of actual refugees (along with half a million civilian deaths), puts the Palestinian issue in a new and dramatically diminished light. Unrwa's own mismanagement-such as reports that the agency has dramatically overcounted the Palestinians it serves in Lebanon-also makes the status quo more difficult to sustain...
So how can the Trump administration move forward regarding Unrwa? The first step needs to be a clear presidential policy statement on the question, made with the support of key congressional leaders: Unrwa has outlived its usefulness; the Palestinians are not 'refugees' but are entitled to citizenship in the countries where they've lived for decades, and the Palestinian Authority must assume its responsibilities toward it own population.
This must be followed by detailed plans to shift funds and responsibilities from Unrwa to the Palestinian Authority, with equally detailed mechanisms for oversight and auditing. And a long-term plan should be developed to take Palestinians off welfare and to make them self-sufficient, while shifting international funds to real refugee crises...
By confronting the problem of Unrwa, the Trump administration has the rare opportunity to disrupt dysfunctional patterns that are long entrenched and fantastically expensive. It also has the opportunity to confront the Palestinian Authority with a choice: If it wishes to be regarded as a state, then it must assume its responsibilities and act like a state. Western donors should demand nothing less. Otherwise, more pressing problems await, and the Palestinians will have missed another opportunity to take control of their own destinies."