What Took Them So Long?

As you know, Hamas has been stirring up trouble on the border between Gaza and Israel. It is more theatre than substance, but people are dying in a futile effort to show that Hamas is strong and powerful.

Yesterday, the State Department decided to cut back on its aid for the Palestinian Authority and Hamas. Apparently, money is fungible and money given to support humanitarian efforts has also been used to attack Israel.

The only serious question is: what took them so long? The Wall Street Journal has the story:

The U.S. has decided to cut more than $200 million in aid for basic services to the Palestinians including health care and education following a review ordered by the Trump administration, the State Department said Friday.

A State Department official said the funds, earmarked for the West Bank and Gaza, would be redirected to “high-priority projects elsewhere” without providing further details.

The aid was part of the State Department’s Economic Support and Development Fund allocations planned for programs in the West Bank and Gaza in the fiscal year 2017, which totaled around $230 million, the official said.

Naturally, the State Department blamed Hamas:

The State Department official appeared to blame Hamas for the decision to cut the funding in a statement, saying the group was responsible for worsening conditions in Gaza.

“This decision takes into account the challenges the international community faces in providing assistance in Gaza, where Hamas control endangers the lives of Gaza’s citizens and degrades an already dire humanitarian and economic situation,” the statement said.

Apparently, the Trump administration has chosen to squeeze the Palestinian Authority and Hamas. It makes perfect sense. It’s about time that the American government ceased the pretense that it could function as a neutral and honest broker between Palestinian terrorists and Israel:

Palestinian officials harshly criticized the move, which comes after the administration’s decision to freeze funding to the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency and the decision to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Hanan Ashrawi, a senior Palestine Liberation Organization official, said the move punishes Palestinians and accused the U.S. of using “cheap blackmail.”

If they are caterwauling about it, perhaps it was not so cheap.