Israeli centrist leader at war with UNRWA
Contrary to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid wholeheartedly embraced the threats by the Trump administration to cut UNRWA financing, which has the potential to create a humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip.
Israel’s opposition spent recent days struggling against the supermarket law (which would have enabled the interior minister to shutter businesses on the Sabbath) and against governmental corruption. After these passionate struggles, it was disappointing to see a main center-left party toe the line of the populist right-wing agenda on a core diplomatic-security issue. More specifically, it was disappointing to see the way Yesh Atid Chairman Yair Lapid embraced an ultimatum conveyed by US President Donald Trump to the Palestinians.
On Jan. 2, Trump tweeted a threat to cut monetary assistance to the Palestinians because of their refusal to renew diplomatic negotiations with Israel: “We pay the Palestinians hundreds of millions of dollars a year and get no appreciation or respect. They don’t even want to negotiate a long overdue peace treaty with Israel. … But with the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?”
The presidential tweet, which appears to have been planned, rather than rash or instinctive, appeared on Twitter several hours after US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley threatened that if the Palestinians don’t return to the negotiating table, the United States might well halt its aid to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). The Palestinians, who have not yet recovered from Trump recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December, hit back. “We will not be blackmailed,” said Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the PLO's Executive Committee, in a Jan. 3 statement. “Palestinian rights are not for sale.”
The Israeli political system responded variously to Trump's threat, from support to silence to criticism. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — who recognizes the explosive potential of the Gaza Strip as a territory in the throes of a humanitarian disaster even before a cutback in aid — took care not to publicly rejoice over Trump’s statement. While the prime minister of course welcomes Trump’s continuing showering of gifts, Netanyahu was ambivalent in this instance.
