Palestinian Authority in the hot seat
A look at the Middle East issues Congress will be addressing the week of Feb. 2.
US aid to the Palestinians comes under renewed scrutiny this coming week following the Palestinian Authority's (PA) bid to join the International Criminal Court (ICC) earlier this month.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee's Middle East panel holds a hearing Feb. 4 questioning whether the PA is a “True Partner for Peace.” Witnesses include David Makovsky, who served on Secretary of State John Kerry's Middle East peace team, and experts from a slew of pro-Israel think tanks.
“Many legal questions about the PA’s ICC gambit remain, but one thing is certain, and that is that the US must suspend all funding to the PA and the administration must seriously redefine its policies toward the PA,” Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., said in advance of the hearing. “This hearing will examine the legal aspects of the PA’s foray into the ICC, what it means for US policy, and how that may impact US national security. It will also examine the current state of affairs in Israel and the Palestinian territories, as well as the US-PA and US-Israel bilateral relations.”
Already, lawmakers have made it clear that they want Kerry to suspend the $400 million in annual assistance to the Palestinians.
