The US Taxpayer and the UNRWA

 For decades the US Taxpayer has been funding one of the greatest scams of our times. Hopefully that time is coming to an end. What am I talking about?

Under the direction of President Trump, and with the encouragement of US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, the US State Department announced that it is withholding $65 million of a planned $125 million funding it has budgeted for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). The State Department said it was releasing the remaining $60 million to keep the UNRWA from completely shutting own.

The US taxpayer is UNWRA’s largest donor, supplying nearly 30 percent of its budget. I understand that Ambassador Haley wanted to completely defund this fraudulent organization but President Trump agreed to the lesser action. What is this all about and what is the UNRWA?

The Real Refugees

Let’s put this in its historical context. When Israel became a state, 800,000 Jewish refugees fled from the Arab states to Israel. These are the real refugees of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Their land and money was confiscated by the Arabs as they fled for their lives with nothing but the clothes on their backs. While it took tremendous sacrifice on the part of the new nation, these refugees were assimilated in the fledging new state and became productive citizens of Israel. The growing Arab population was not as fortunate.

Arab leaders from the neighboring countries declared war against Israel. They instructed the Arab Palestinians to flee the Jewish state until the Jews were annihilated. They could then return and possess the land. Unfortunately for those who fled, things did not work out as they were told.

While there is no doubt that Jewish fighters drove some Arabs away, it happens in war, you know, the Jewish leaders policy was to encourage the Arabs to stay. The great majority of Arabs were not expelled but left without ever seen an Israeli soldier.

An Arab sponsored Institute for Palestine Studies in Beirut reported in 1948 that the majority of the Arab refugees were not expelled and sixty-eight percent left without seeing an Israeli Soldier. This is clearly a different story than the Arab myth that the Jews caused the Arab refugee problem. The hated “Jewish-Zionists” did not force the Arab Palestinians to leave. Their own leaders forced them to leave the land. This created the Arab Palestinian problem.

The UNRWA

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) was formed and given the humane responsibility of administering the “refugee problem”. The billions of dollars given the UNRWA to assist the “refugees” have come primarily from the American taxpayer.

While it is normal to consider a refugee a person who had domicile in a residence for many years, there were relatively few Palestinian Arabs who lived a long time in the land. To compensate for the myth, the United Nations changed the definition of an Arab refugee as one who had lived only two years in the land before Israel became a state in 1948. With this all-inclusive definition, it is estimated that there were between 400,000-600,000 Palestinian Arabs who fled their homes. No one could give an accurate number because of fraud.

The UNRWA says the number of refugees with their descendants now number in the millions. Over time, many of these “refugees” found the good life living outside the refugee camps while all the while collecting their “refugee compensation” from the rest of us who have to work for a living. We not only support them but also all of their cousins who were born in some other country. If the American taxpayer understood how their hard-earned money was wasted on these “pretend refugees” they would be outraged.

As the entire world knows, the Arab countries have refused to assimilate the Arab Palestinians and care for their needs. Instead, they continue to use them as political pawns in their struggle against Israel. Ignorant of their own history, all the refugees know is that “the Jews stole their land which was their ancestors from time immemorial.” They have believed the ‘big lie’ and are filled with hate for the Jews who stole their land.

King Hussein said in 1960, “Since 1948 Arab leaders have approached the Palestine problem in an irresponsible manner. … They have used the Palestine people for selfish political purposes. This is ridiculous and, I could say, even criminal.”

If the UNRWA ever had any credibility it has certainly lost it. For example, do you know that UNRWA officials are a part of the leadership of HAMAS in Gaza? UNRWA schools funded with US taxpayer money deny the legitimacy of the State of Israel and allow HAMAS to build terror tunnels into Israel under UNRWA facilities such as schools and hospitals putting children, the sick and the elderly at risk. When they are exposed they pretend to be shocked and bewildered as to how this could happen. The UNRWA has become nothing more than a front for anti-Israel hate organizations.

The refugee problem is a huge business with thousands profiting from it. Regardless of the public rhetoric to the contrary, only the most naïve and misguided connected with the refugees has any interest in ending the plight of the displaced Arab Palestinians. It is just another anti-American, anti-Israel UN hate organization using the American taxpayer as their personal ATM machine. It is time to completely defund the UNRWA.  If you agree, say, “AMEN!”