Biden’s UN ambassador announces $15 million aid for Palestinians

“The aid will help Palestinians in dire need, which will bring more stability and security to both Israelis and Palestinians alike,” Thomas-Greenfield said.

By David Isaac, World Israel News

The U.S. will provide $15 million in humanitarian assistance for Palestinians “in the West Bank and Gaza Strip,” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the UN Security Council Briefing on the situation in the Middle East on Thursday.

“This urgent, necessary aid is one piece of our renewed commitment to the Palestinian people,” Thomas-Greenfield said.

“The aid will help Palestinians in dire need, which will bring more stability and security to both Israelis and Palestinians alike. That’s consistent with our interests and our values, and it aligns with our efforts to stamp out the pandemic and food insecurity worldwide,” she said.

She added, “our administration will take steps to re-open diplomatic channels of communication that were halted during the last administration.”

The previous administration under President Donald Trump withheld funds to the Palestinians due to their continued support for terrorism and their policy of pay-for-slay, in which they supported terrorists and their families.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) paid more than 512 million shekels ($157 million) in 2020 to terrorists imprisoned by Israel, according to Palestinian Media Watch in a Feb. 22 report.

PA President Mahmoud Abbas has made it clear that such payments are very nearly the raison d’etre of the Palestinian Authority and would not be stopped no matter how much international pressure was brought to bear.

Thomas-Greenfield also said the Biden administration “has recommitted to the vision of a mutually agreed two-state solution, one in which Israel lives in peace and security alongside a viable Palestinian state.”

Critics of the two-state solution say establishing an unapologetically terror-supporting state on the high ground overlooking Israel’s population centers is a recipe for disaster.

Thomas-Greenfield’s announcement is further evidence that the Biden administration is returning to the old paradigm of placing the Arab-Palestinian conflict at the forefront of Middle East policy and reversing the Trump administration’s policy of working around the conflict to reach agreements with other Arab countries, a strategy that led to the first Arab-Israeli accords in 26 years.