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December 3, 2023

This week’s column on the ongoing fight between civilization and barbarity focuses on the role on the United Nations and its various agencies in keeping jihadism alive and well; the outrageous efforts by the incompetent Anthony Blinken to hamstring Israel’s justified defense; and the little-known or publicized support by Arab leaders for Israel’s eradication of Hamas.

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Winkin’

Every one of the United Nation’s agencies involved in the Middle East have placed it on the side of the most barbarous enemies of civilization. The worst is the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). Disgusted by the agency’s role, Germany has frozen its substantial contributions to UNRWA (Germany is UNRWA’s second largest donor at $202 million last year) and the United States should do no less. (In 2018 President Trump cut funds to UNRWA; the Biden Administration rushed to restore them.)

UNRWA was formed in 1948. There was already in existence the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) which had successfully resettled refugees. UNRWA, in contrast, has hired radical Islamists and used the schools, hospitals, and programs it manages to propagandize generations into serving as Islamist foot soldiers and martyrs. Zach Lewis is right:

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Its benefits fund terrorism and are a pillar of the festering sore that is the “right of return” to all of Israel and the restoration of a mythical Palestine that never existed. Although UNRWA claims to aid over 5 million refugees, these people (and registered deceased and non-existent people) are not refugees by any definition. Refugee status is not maintained when people are resettled, let alone to offspring of those displaced. UNRWA was wrong in conception and disastrous in execution. It’s 1.5 billion annual budget (funded by the US, other countries, and NGOs) is sponsoring terrorism, totalitarianism, anti-Western hate and virulent antisemitism. Their facilities, personnel and budget are co-opted by criminals. They sometimes ignore, and often aid and participate in terrorism and crime. It’s time to end the farce that is UNRWA. It is long past time to #DefundUNRWA. 

Cut their funding and boot them out of Gaza, Judea, and Samaria.

Israel has informed the U.N. that it will not renew the visa of Lynn Hastings, a resident U.N. functionary for humanitarian coordination, who criticized Israel’s actions in Gaza while never drawing attention to the Hamas acts which prompted them, putting all blame on Israel for the humanitarian crisis. 

In the latest conflict, one UNRWA teacher stuffed a child hostage in his attic, starved him and deprived him of medicines. UNRWA relief supplies were found in Hamas tunnels. Attached to an abandoned backpack in Gaza were two identification tags, one describing the owner as a member of Hamas, the other the same owner as an UNRWA employee. Disturbed that it is suddenly receiving the attention and opprobrium it has long deserved, UNRWA tweeted: ”Spreading unsubstantiated claims about @UNRWA must stop immediately.” David Burge responded: “Or we’ll hold your children hostage in an attic and starve them.“ In response to the terror attacks of October 7, UNRWA teachers, principals, and administrators reacted this way: ”Reality surpasses our wildest dreams;” ”welcome to the great October,” and more. The massacres were justified as “restoring rights’ and “redressing Palestinian ‘grievances’.”

Lebanese-Iraqi Hussain Abdul-Hussain nails it:

UNRWA’s very existence is political and unjustified. All the world’s refugees get one UN agency, UNHCR, and Palestinians get their own agency UNRWA. Also, UN refugee mission is to resettle refugees, like UNHCR does, not maintain Palestinian refugee status and make it hereditary, even when these Palestinian refugees have long been settled.