OPINION:
Humanity’s steps along history’s pathway are rarely straightforward. Yet refusing to reward enemies for killing innocents is a simple principle that sadly, our government has overlooked. In allowing aid to flow to the Palestinian people, President Biden has failed to ensure that funds cannot find their way to Hamas, the terrorist organization that is waging war on Israel.
It is no secret that Iran has provided weapons and training for Palestinian paramilitaries in Gaza who were responsible for an attack on the Jewish state, now in its second week. Iran has also granted uncounted millions to Hezbollah, another terrorist proxy, which has joined the assault by firing rockets into northern Israel from its Lebanese redoubts in recent days. The two-pronged offensive has killed more than 1,400 Israelis and as many as 30 Americans. Some 200 people have been taken hostage.
Those who sympathize with the Palestinians may shake their heads in denial of Iran’s involvement as they proudly wave the Palestinian flag in Western capitals, but Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi enunciated the nation’s support for the invasion on state television. A Hamas spokesman confirmed the mullahcracy’s “direct” support to the BBC.
Yet Mr. Biden fecklessly told CBS’ “60 Minutes” on Sunday there is “no clear evidence” of Iranian collaboration in the onslaught. Downplaying what Iran and Hamas boast of is the sort of head-in-the-sand conduct that has given these terrorists the opening to launch their murderous rampage.
White House officials have denied that any of the $6 billion in Iranian funds the administration has unfrozen for humanitarian expenditures is being used to bankroll the war on Israel. Their assurances miss the point: The previous promise of a coming payday could have given the mullahs incentive to fund their devilry with existing assets.
The Biden administration and Qatar, where the $6 billion is banked, have now agreed to withhold the funds temporarily. That is not good enough. Senate Republicans are wisely demanding that Mr. Biden prevent Iran from obtaining the means to kill Israelis by making the freeze permanent. The president’s visit to Israel affords him the chance to see Iran’s deadly handiwork in person.
Aside from the Iranian funds, the Biden administration has reportedly sent more than $1 billion in aid to the Palestinian people. U.S. taxpayer funds funneled through the United Nations to Palestinian organizations totaled $318 million in 2021, $364 million in 2022 and $371 million this year, according to OpenTheBooks.com, a government watchdog organization. And $260 million has been earmarked for fiscal 2024.
The pivotal United Nations Relief and Works Agency, an organization branded by the left-leaning New Republic as “effectively a branch of Hamas,” has shamelessly asked for a supplemental appropriation of $104 million to “enable its multi-sectoral humanitarian response over the coming 90 days.”
Assuredly, some Palestinians desire nothing but peace, but their failure to expel leaders who spill blood in their name mustn’t be intensified with funds from either Iran or the United States. President Biden should halt the purchase of terror.
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