Michel , Mahmud Abbas and Barack Obama: Gave Palestinian Authority Millions
In his last days as President, Barack Obama released $221 Million in economic aid to the Palestinian Authority. The funds had been held up by the Republican majority in Congress.
AP reports that a State Department official and several congressional aides confirmed that Barack Obama waited until the morning of President Donald Trump’s inauguration to inform the Congress of the move.
The funds came from the U.S. Agency for International Development and were transferred to the Palestinian Authority for humanitarian aid in the West Bank and Gaza.
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The move is certain to infuriate the Republican Congress and the new Donald Trump Administration. President Trump has made it clear that he intends to have a more friendly relationship with Israel than President Barack Obama had.
According to The Hill, Congress had previously approved the aid, but two House Republicans, Representative Ed Royce of California, who serves as the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Kay Granger of Texas, who is on the Appropriations Committee, put holds on the aid money because the Palestinian Authority was seeking membership in international organizations.
There is also concern that funds granted in aid by the international community to the Palestinian Authority do not get to the people who the money is meant to help. There is a considerable amount of corruption in the PA and it spends a lot of money on the accommodations for and compensation to its senior officials.
There was a great deal of speculation among supporters of Israel that President Barack Obama was planning some sort of last minute move to hurt Israel on his way out of office. They believed that the former President was angry over Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s policies and that he “hates” Israel. Netanyahu was in office for almost the entire length of the Barack Obama Administration.
But these concerns proved to be unfounded. The harshest move against Israel came on December 23, 2016, when with only a month left in office the Obama Administration chose not to veto a UN Security Council Resolution which condemned Israel for settlement building.
