Israel Matzav

Obama to veto Kirk amendment?

Jerrold Auerbach says it's unimaginable that President Obama will not veto the Kirk amendment, which would require the State Department to differentiate between 'Palestinian refugees' who actually left Israel during 1948-49 and others who currently have 'refugee' status. And if Obama had a line item veto, Auerbach would be right. But Kirk's amendment is part of the US foreign aid package, and in an election year, it is difficult but not impossible to believe that Obama would do something that would so blatantly place his sympathies in the 'Palestinian' camp. After all, Israel is much more popular among American voters than are the 'Palestinians.' Of course, the amendment would first have to make its way through Congress, including the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Other than that, however, this comment by Auerbach is spot on (Hat Tip: Ricky G).

The flip–side of Palestinian demographic distortion is the persistent claim that 5 million homeless “refugees,” scattered throughout the world, enjoy the right of return to their lost homeland (Israel). The United Nations Relief and Works Agency was established in 1948 to provide support for the 750,000 Palestinians (some 30,000 of whom are still living) who lost their homes during Israel’s war of independence in 1948 and either chose to leave or were forced out. It has fed Palestinian grievances by deciding that all 5 million descendants of the original refugees are also eligible for support, now amounting to $1.23 billion annually.

The State Department has long been complicit in this charade. Senator Kirk, a Republican of Illinois, recently inserted in the State Department funding bill an amendment to require the department to provide Congress with the number of Palestinians physically displaced from their homes in 1948, and the number of their descendants administered by UNRWA.

In a letter to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Deputy Secretary of State Thomas Nides responded that Kirk’s “proposed amendment would be viewed around the world as the United States acting to prejudge and determine the outcome of this sensitive issue.” The last thing the State Department seems to want is for a decision about American aid to Palestinians, now $400 million annually, to be based on documented evidence of refugee status. This could be embarassing, especially when the Palestinian Authority spends more than $5 million monthly in American funding for the salaries it pays to 5,500 convicted and alleged terrorists imprisoned in Israel

The Kirk amendment has been approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee. But even if Congress ratifies it (unlikely) and President Obama does not veto it (unimaginable), final funding decisions will still rest with the UN.

Human rights organizations compete to provide aid to Palestinians living under Israeli “occupation.” The New Israel Fund, B’tselem, Peace Now, and the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights, among an array of like-minded groups, would have many fewer causes to pursue – and to sustain their own organizations – if Palestinians were removed from their roster of victims. As Seth Frantzman wrote in the Jerusalem Post, “the occupation is their raison d’etre and without it they cannot exist.”

The Palestinian scam goes even deeper. Even if there is a State of Palestine, the Palestinian ambassador to Lebanon recently acknowledged, Palestinians — including those living in refugee camps inside the new state — “are still refugees. They will not be considered citizens.” Why not? Because they would then forfeit their “right of return” to Israel. “Even a [Palestinian] state accepted as a member of the United Nations,” he insisted, “is not the end of the conflict.”

Read the whole thing.

Labels: NGO's, Palestinian refugees, United Nations, UNRWA

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:28 AM