Amid an unprecedented public health and economic emergency, Democrats are calling for President Donald Trump to deliver aid to Palestine.
On Saturday, Democratic Reps. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Alan Lowenthal of California published a Washington Post Op-Ed asking Trump to release $75 million in assistance for Palestine.
They maintain Palestine needs what they claimed are congressionally approved funds to battle the coronavirus.
“While covid-19 does not recognize borders, we must recognize that without aid and assistance, the Palestinian people will be greatly affected by this health crisis,” they wrote.
Yet, considering the economic devastation wrought by the coronavirus, the American people need every penny of our own money during this national emergency.
Trump has rightly made a series of cuts in U.S. aid to Palestine throughout his presidency.
In August 2018, the administration announced it was halting U.S. funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, according to The Guardian.
Months later, in early 2019, Trump stopped all U.S. funding for the Palestinian Authority, The Jerusalem Post reported.
It’s not just Palestine.
In April, the president halted funding to the World Health Organization pending an investigation into its possible mismanagement of the early days of the pandemic.
Trump has vowed to carry out his “America First” agenda, for which he was given a mandate in 2016. He believes American leaders must protect the vital interests of their nation’s citizens first and foremost.
And in making all of these moves, Trump truly has put America first.
With unemployment figures skyrocketing, our leaders must hold on to every precious resource to alleviate the suffering of Americans.
These obvious points are lost on Tlaib and Lowenthal.
While Tlaib has proposed legislation to address the economic effects of the pandemic on Americans (a laughable bill that called for the government to mint two trillion-dollar coins), she doesn’t seem to understand that when millions of our own citizens are suffering, it’s not the right time for the U.S. to focus on how to help Palestinians.
In some places in our own country, food bank lines extend miles as out-of-work Americans look to feed their families.
“We’re looking at an increase of 17.1 million people over the course of the next six months,” Claire Babineaux-Fontenot, CEO of the hunger relief organization Feeding America, told NBC News.
Yet Tlaib and Lowenthal want the U.S. government to take care of Palestinians?
It’s also worth noting that the Trump administration is concerned that funds heading to Palestine might fall into the hands of terrorists rather than those in need.
The United States Agency for International Development has worked to block relief funds going to the Gaza Strip, concerned they might be used by the ruling terrorist organization Hamas to harm America or our allies.
“There is a Hamas government in Gaza,” an anonymous senior Trump administration official told the New York Post late last month. “They have indicated no interest in engaging with us, no interest in peace with Israel and in fact they continue — despite having coronavirus cases in Gaza — to fire rockets at the Israelis on a regular basis.”
USAID has released $5 million in aid for Palestinian hospitals and households, but only in the West Bank, which is “ruled by the comparatively more moderate Palestinian Authority,” according to the Post.
Trump is the president of the United States, not the world. He must use our resources to protect our national security and economic well-being rather than gamble that relief dollars may fall into the wrong hands abroad.
With America arguably in the midst of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, it is obscene that Democrats like Tlaib and Lowenthal are obsessing over aid to Palestine.
Their self-righteous article, full of virtue-signalling, is in reality a profound betrayal of the American people.
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