Here's an idea: Stop funding the Palestinians.

For those who are so concerned about their countries funding initiatives abroad, maybe they should start by telling their governments to end corrupted foreign aid to the Palestinian Territories.

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Many people in many Western countries are justifying their anti-Israel sentiments by claiming that they would prefer their governments stop sending money and/or other resources to Israel while their own country struggles with its own resource-scarce socioeconomic issues.

On the surface, I can understand why people would think this way, but if you want to make an argument about your country’s budget, then make this argument about every single line item in the budget, not just the Israel one.

And, if you are particularly concerned about your government funding ventures abroad, especially in areas of conflict or where the return on investment is unclear, then funding of the Palestinians deserves the utmost scrutiny.

International aid to the Palestinians began in earnest after the 1993 Oslo Accords “peace process” that did not bring peace and only encouraged more virulent Palestinian terrorism against Israel. (The Second Intifada and October 7th are just two of countless examples.)

At the time, the Oslo Accords were seen as a breakthrough, and the international community was eager to support the establishment of a Palestinian state. This led to the establishment of the Palestinian Authority, which was intended to govern the West Bank and Gaza and eventually lead to the creation of a fully sovereign Palestinian state.

Instead, the Palestinian Authority became one of the most kleptocratic regimes on this planet, and Hamas violently excommunicated Fatah (the political party which runs the Palestinian Authority) from Gaza in 2007 after Hamas supposedly “won” local elections. Excommunication methods included throwing political rivals off the top of buildings and dragging their dead bodies through Gaza’s streets to make sure everyone understood the repercussions of opposing Hamas.

However, none of this stopped the European Union, Canada, Australia, the United States, and various Arab countries from wiping the Palestinians’ you-know-what with billions in annual financial aid.

Proponents of this aid argue that it is necessary to foster stability in a volatile region and support the creation of a viable Palestinian state that can live in peace alongside Israel, except for two caveats:

1. Many Palestinians (the majority?) do not want to live in peace alongside Israel. They want all the land for themselves; you know the drill: “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free!”

2. By wiping the Palestinians’ you-know-what with billions in annual financial aid and no real accountability, the Western world has been exacerbating the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, making it harder and harder to solve it.

Proponents of Palestinian aid also argue that “humanitarian” concerns play a major role, since the Palestinian Territories face significant socioeconomic challenges, including high unemployment, poverty, and limited access to basic services.

Much of this is true, but the basis for it is what matters most: The so-called “occupation” and “blockade” are not ample reasons for such “humanitarian” concerns. Rather, it is the Jihadist, authoritarian, oppressive Palestinian leaders both in the West Bank and Gaza who purposely keep their people poor, angry, and agitated so that they can continue to blame Israel for internal problems which, more often than not, have nothing to do with Israel.

Despite the noble intentions behind some international aid to the Palestinians — who collectively have received the most foreign aid per capita of any group by a long shot — the process has been fraught with controversy, inefficiency, and unintended consequences.

One of the most notable concerns with aid to the Palestinians is the persistent issue of corruption and mismanagement within the Palestinian Authority and Hamas. Numerous reports have documented the misuse of funds, with allegations ranging from embezzlement, to both organizations’ pay-for-slay policies (killing Israelis for cash payouts), to the use of aid money to bankroll Palestinian officials’ lavish lifestyles.

Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of Donald Trump and one of the former U.S. president’s senior advisors during his time in the White House, recently told a story comparing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Kushner said that he and his team would meet with Netanyahu “who runs a military superpower and an economic superpower,” but “would take a commercial EL AL flight” to Washington, D.C.

On the other hand, Abbas — who, as Kushner described him, “obviously represents a ‘refugee group’” — “would fly (to Washington, D.C.) in a $60-million Boeing private business jet.” Kushner added: “I’d meet with him and we’d be sitting around and he’d put a cigarette into his mouth and somebody would come over to light the cigarette for him. I’d be like, ‘Am I meeting with the head of a refugee group or am I meeting with a king?’”¹

And then there are the leaked records from a Panamanian law firm which showed that Abbas and his two sons have used power and influence to control the two major Palestinian economic boards and build a West Bank economic empire worth more than $300 million.²

Abbas’ dictatorship — he’s now in the 19th year of a four-year term — has allowed his family’s consortium to dominate the West Bank’s commerce and labor markets, including owning shopping centers, media, and insurance companies, while distributing food, cigarettes, cosmetics, and other consumer items.

That is not even the worst of it, though.

One story goes like this: In the early 2000s, Israel began building a security barrier, separating it from the West Bank to prevent habitual Palestinian terrorism against Israelis that was emanating there. The Palestinian Authority called this security barrier the “apartheid wall.”

But while the barrier was being denounced, it was being built with Palestinian cement, corruptly diverted by Palestinian Authority officials. Some 20,000 tons of cement, imported from Egypt for building Palestinian homes and buildings in Gaza, had been resold at huge profits to the Israelis for use in constructing separation barriers and Jewish settlements throughout the West Bank.

Mind you, this is the same Palestinian Authority that is considered (by many Western donors) to be the more “moderate” of the Palestinians’ two political leadership groups, the other being genocidal death-cult Hamas.

These are among the main reasons why, despite decades of endless Palestinian aid, the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians is virtually nonexistent, and the prospects for a two-state solution appear increasingly dim. International aid has, in many cases, had the opposite of its intended effect; all it has really done is enable Palestinian leadership to avoid making necessary compromises, since they are neer really held accountable for their intransigence.

What’s more, the Palestinian Territories have become heavily dependent on international aid, creating a culture of over-reliance that stifles socioeconomic development and self-sufficiency. Rather than fostering sustainable institutions and a working economy, aid has in some cases perpetuated the very conditions it was meant to alleviate.

Never mind that international oversight and accountability are after-thoughts, a problem protracted by the multiplicity of international donors and agencies involved in providing aid to the Palestinians. For example, no one seems to care that the United Nations agency for Palestinian “refugees” (UNRWA) has become a billion-dollar behemoth that systematically indoctrinates Palestinian kids to hate Israel and kill Jews in the wide array of UNRWA schools and its other civil programs throughout the Palestinian Territories, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.

Hence why it was no surprise that dozens of UNRWA employees directly participated in the October 7th massacres and kidnappings, and that Hamas routinely uses the organization’s schools and facilities for weapons storage, command centers, and human shields.

If any group of people not named “the Jews” was the victims of October 7th, UNRWA’s obscene corruption, explicit aiding and abetting of terrorism, and other rampant malpractices would make for a must-see Netflix documentary special detailing perhaps the greatest geopolitical scandal of our time.

Palestinian deception, fraud, and misconduct with regard to foreign aid has become so ludicrous that Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, have stopped sending checks. Meanwhile, the European Union, Canada, Australia, and the U.S. continue to shell out billions of dollars to the Palestinians as if it is them (and not Israel) which provides vast amounts of technology, security, intelligence, defense, and other assets in return for this aid.

Indeed, non-Arab donors have provided nearly 80 percent of all aid to the Palestinians since 1994.³

In a prescient analysis, University of Central Florida assistant professor Yara Asi argued that, since the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993 and 1995, “nobody seems to know what the long-term purpose of aid in Palestine is anymore.”⁴

I personally understand, generally speaking, the needs and justifications for Western governments deciding to finance initiatives overseas, but such aid should come with skyhigh accountability and stipulations, not a stack of get-out-of-jail-free cards.

One potential approach is to make aid conditional on certain benchmarks being met. For example, aid could be tied to specific reforms within the Palestinian Territories, such as improving transparency and accountability, or ending payments to the families of terrorists who aim to kill as many Israelis as possible. This would ensure that aid is used more effectively and that it contributes to the broader goals of peace and stability.

Another option is to redirect aid away from the Palestinians’ kleptocratic governments and toward projects that directly benefit the Palestinian people, such as education, healthcare, and socioeconomic development initiatives. This could reduce the risk of funds being misused or diverted, while still addressing the humanitarian needs of the Palestinian population.

The international community could also encourage regional solutions to the Palestinian issue, with greater involvement from neighboring Arab states. Countries like Egypt and Jordan, which have a vested interest in regional stability, could play a more significant role in supporting the Palestinians, both politically and economically. This would also alleviate some of the burden on Western donors.

Finally, there is a strong case for shifting the focus of aid from short-term humanitarian relief to long-term socioeconomic development. This would involve investing in projects that promote job creation, entrepreneurship, and infrastructure development in the Palestinian territories. The goal would be to reduce the Palestinians’ dependency on foreign aid and to foster a more self-reliant and sustainable society.

Until these approaches take shape, there is no greater waste of money than continuing to send financial aid to the Palestinians — and those who are actually serious about holding their governments accountable to where and how taxpayer money is allocated ought to take notice.

As one of my mentors taught me a few years ago: Pouring more money onto a problem does not make the problem go away. It just makes the problem worse.

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1. “E153: In conversation with Jared Kushner: Israel-Hamas War, paths forward, macro picture, AI.” All-In Podcast. YouTube.

2. “Palestinian kleptocracy: West accepts corruption, people suffer the consequences.” The Hill.

3. “International Aid to the Palestinians: Between Politicization and Development.” Arab Center Washington DC.

4. “Aid to Palestinians has failed. Here’s how to fix it.” The New Humanitarian.