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Trump administration transfers $20 million to PA for wastewater projects
[IsraelTimes] White House redirects funds for West Bank use that were originally designated for economic aid to EgyptThe Trump administration has directed an additional $20 million for the Paleostinian Authority, to go to wastewater projects in the West Bank, a White House official told The Times of Israel on Wednesday. After funds initially allocated for an economic aid package to Egypt were frozen in August over that country’s poor record on democracy and civil liberties, the State Department and National Security Council decided six weeks ago to re-distribute that money toward West Bank initiatives, the official said. If those specific funds ‐ which were part of a Fiscal Year 2016 budget allocation ‐ were not transferred, they would have evaporated at the end of September, when the fiscal year ends and such an appropriation would expire. The White House source denied that the looming passage of the Taylor Force Act, which is set to be voted on in December, was the impetus for re-directing that money. The source cited the administration recently saying it "strongly supports the Taylor Force Act" and signaled that the president would sign it into law. Jewish Insider, which first reported the re-allocation, had quoted an unnamed Congressional aide who said the White House "is trying to get money out of the door before Taylor Force goes into effect." "The $20 million in question was part of the reprogramming out of the Egyptian account, a decision that was made on a totally different level," the official said on Wednesday. "The urgency was the end of September date, not the Taylor Force Act." The source also emphasized those funds would be routed to specific programs that were supported by Israel and designed to enhance West Bank Paleostinians’ quality of life. "To be clear, this is not money that we are giving unfettered to the Paleostinian Authority" of the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... . "This is money that’s going to be used to complete very important sanitation projects that benefit the Paleostinian people," the official said. "These projects that specifically improve the lives of the Paleostinian people are supported by the Israelis, because the wastewater issue is an issue for them, too." The Taylor Force Act, which passed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last month, would cut US funding to the PA if it doesn’t cease what critics call its program of compensating gunnies and their families. The Paleostine Liberation Organization has condemned it, saying shortly after its committee passage that legislation was "unacceptable" and would violate Paleostinians’ human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. Named after a former US army officer who was stabbed to death by a Paleostinian assailant when visiting Tel Aviv in March 2016, the bill was added earlier this month onto a larger appropriations bill slated for a December vote, in a bid to increase its chances of passing the Senate during the current legislative session. In a talk Monday to the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee’s annual meeting at the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, Trump’s special peace envoy Jason Greenblatt spoke about the administration’s hope to get more water and better sanitation in the Paleostinian territories. An "area on which the United States and our partners are focused is wastewater treatment and reuse in the West Bank and Gazoo," he said, although he did not explicitly mention the $20 million that was being funneled for such projects. Earlier this year, Congressional Republicans were highly critical of a similar B.O. regime decision to quietly authorize $221 million for Paleostinian programs during the former president’s final hours in office. Trump officials went on to inform the Paleostinian Authority that it had frozen the funds just days after he entered the White House. Posted by: trailing wife 2017-09-21 |
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