- In reality, the Palestinians have one main message for the US administration: We hate you and incite against you, but we fully expect that you will continue providing us with cash, to the tune of billions of dollars. And, when you do try to help us, we reserve the right to spit in your face.
- The entire existence of Fatah, the faction that dominates and controls the Palestinian Authority, relies heavily on financial aid from the US, EU and other Western donors.
- So, while the protesters in Ramallah were demanding that the US rescind its decision to cut off its funding to UNRWA, Abbas's men in east Jerusalem were trying to block a US-sponsored meeting to discuss ways of helping the Palestinian economy.
- Abbas and his top officials in Ramallah evidently want to have it both ways -- to continue their incitement against the Trump administration while being bankrolled by US taxpayer money.
- Abbas and company would do well to learn that when they spit in the well they drink from, the water they draw will be bitter indeed.
Once again, the Palestinians are conveying conflicting messages about their attitude towards US President Donald Trump's administration. On one side, they are condemning the Trump administration for its decision to cut all US aid to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA); on the other, the Palestinians are opposed to any plan by the US administration to provide them with financial aid and improve their living conditions.
This Palestinian stance is not only bad-faith double-dealing, it also reflects the state of confusion and uncertainty among the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah in particular and the Palestinian public in general.
In reality, the Palestinians have one main message for the US administration: We hate you and incite against you, but we fully expect that you will continue providing us with cash, to the tune of billions of dollars. And, when you do try to help us, we reserve the right to spit in your face.
This is the message -- despite much duplicitous obfuscation -- that the Palestinians have long sought to communicate the US.
Now to the facts.
Earlier this week, Palestinians staged a protest in Ramallah against the Trump administration's decision to halt US aid to UNRWA. During the protest outside America House (the educational and cultural center belonging to the US Consulate General in the de facto capital of the Palestinians, Ramallah), the Palestinians burned photos of Trump and some of his senior representatives, including US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman and presidential advisors Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt. The protesters chanted slogans condemning the Trump administration as being "fully complicit" with Israel in its "aggression and war" on the Palestinians.
In other words, the Palestinian protesters, who included senior officials of Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas's ruling Fatah faction, are demanding that the US continue to fund Palestinian "refugees" through UNRWA. The message the protesters sent to the Trump administration is: Look, we burn the photos of your president and top officials and we hate you, so kindly continue to give us hundreds of millions of dollars every year.
As recently noted in this space, in Arabic this is called wakaha (impudence or audacity). It takes a lot of wakaha to spit in someone's face and then reach your hand out to beg for money.
The question of Palestinian responsiveness is once again on display as Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas and his senior officials in Ramallah step up their verbal attacks on the US administration after its decision to cut $200 million in American financial aid to the Palestinians.
Abbas and the PA leadership are again behaving like spoiled, angry children whose candy has been taken away from them, hurling abuse at the Trump administration. Recall that earlier this year, Abbas called US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman a "son of a dog."
For the past 9 months, the Palestinian leaders have been waging a massive and unprecedented campaign of incitement and abuse against Trump and his administration. This campaign began immediately after Trump announced his decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital in December 2017, and the campaign is continuing to this day as a reply to the US decision to slash $200 million from the American financial aid to the Palestinians.
Significantly, the PA and its leaders were the ones who initiated the crisis with the US administration. Their dissatisfaction with Trump's announcement on Jerusalem may be understandable, but they chose to take their protest to an extreme by boycotting the US administration and waging a smear campaign against Trump and his "Jewish advisors and envoys."
It is clear that the Palestinian boycott of the US administration did not include receiving funds from the Americans. One the one hand, the Palestinians have been boycotting and badmouthing US administration officials. On the other hand, Abbas and his representatives are now crying that the US administration is slashing $200 millio
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