THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume IX, Issue # 226, December 3, 2007
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
HOW UNRWA CREATES DEPENDENCY
By Asaf Romirowsky & Jonathan Spyer
THE UNITED NATIONS RELIEF & WORKS AGENCY & ITS IMPACT UPON THE MIDDLE EAST & THE ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN
CONFLICT: HOW &
WHY UNRWA HELPS PERPETUATE THE PALESTINIAN REFUGEE ISSUE & IS THEREFORE A CENTRAL FACTOR HELPING TO
PREVENT RESOLUTION OF THE ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN CONFLICT -- UNRWA'S WELL-DOCUMENTED TERRORIST TIES -- UNRWA
AS A DYSFUNCTIONAL BUREAUCRACY WITH A PRO-ARAB, ANTI-ISRAELI BIAS -- WHAT SHOULD BE DONE ABOUT THE
PROBLEM
FULL STORY:
For Israelis, the United Nations is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, the Israelis are fully aware of the anti-Israel
sentiment that the United Nations perpetuates, but, on the other hand, the Israelis want to be part of the UN and to have
their voices heard. This stance is understandable. But it produces positions which sometimes directly contradict Israel's
clear interest.
Observe: During a recent conference titled, "Hijacking Human Rights: The Demonization of Israel by the United Nations,"
Daniel Carmon, Israel's Deputy Permanent Representative at the United Nations, stated that "We [Israel] encounter
hypocrisy and cynicism on the one hand, and we are all witness to that when we walk into the building, but we are also
trying with relative success to identify how, within the existing mandate, [to find] parallel paths of working with the world
body." Reflecting this problematic and paradoxical Israeli stance, Mr. Carmon urged the approximately 200 conference
participants to state that UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees in the Near
East) was "doing a good job" providing humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in the Palestinian territories.
The matter of UNRWA, perhaps above all others, illustrates the difficulty of the Israeli position on the United Nations.
Israeli officials well tell you that, if UNRWA does not take care of Palestinian needs, then these will become Israel's
responsibility. And, despite UNRWA's well-documented terrorist ties, Israel prefers not to bear this burden.
This position produces a situation in which Israel itself ends up forming one of the factors blocking the way to the
dismantling of UNRWA. UNRWA, in turn, is a central factor blocking a solution to the Palestinian refugee issue — which
is one of the central factors preventing the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Understanding the way that UNRWA helps perpetuate the Palestinian refugee problem requires taking a closer look at the
way that the agency functions. Doing so reveals the workings of a dysfunctional bureaucracy.
While Palestinian refugees benefit materially from UNRWA, the agency benefits in return from the refugees. The refugees
are the organization's raison d'etre. And bureaucracies tend to dislike dissolving themselves. So, like any good bureaucracy,
UNRWA has zero incentive to resolve the Palestinian refugee problem, if it is to continue to exist. Ending the refugee
problem would render UNRWA obsolete.
Instead, UNRWA finds a hundred and one ways to perpetuate Palestinian dependency. The interests of the refugees and
UNRWA are fatally intertwined; UNRWA is staffed mainly by local Palestinians — more than 23,000 of them — with only
about 100 international United Nations professionals. Tellingly, while the UN High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) and
UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund) avoid employing locals who are also recipients of agency services, UNRWA
does not make this distinction. Terrorism does not exclude one from being a part of UNRWA. In fact, quite the opposite is
true: UNRWA-overseen hospitals and clinics routinely employ members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine,
Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Employing Palestinians for decade after decade and providing them with
subsistence-level food aid and rudimentary education are a far cry from giving them usable skills and a positive attitude
about creating their own independent economy and viable civic institutions.
In addition, the Palestinian agenda (and sympathy for the Palestinian cause) have infiltrated every aperture at Turtle Bay.
UNWRA has spent decades keeping this single issue, key to the organization's survival, at the forefront of the UN agenda,
whether it belongs there or not. It has engendered Arab and Western support for the delegitimation of Israel, and facilitated
comparisons between Nazism and Zionism — a false linkage that bolsters Palestinian claims of oppression. When former
Secretary-General Kofi Annan appeared at a UN "Palestine Day" event which astonishingly featured a map of the Middle
East that conspicuously omitted Israel, it was emblematic of the way in which the United Nations has transformed itself into
a propaganda machine for such thinking. UNRWA has no parallel in the UN system. UNRWA is dedicated solely to
providing assistance to Palestinian refugees; no other group of refugees, whatever their circumstances, warrants this much
attention.
As we look toward the future of Israeli-Palestinian relations, the United Nations, as a member of the Quartet, has a special
obligation to uphold the commitment outlined in the 2003 "road map" for Israeli-Palestinian peace to dismantle terrorist
capabilities and infrastructure. In an effort to insulate good works from terrorist infiltration and exploitation, Washington
should stand ready to help the United Nations live up to this obligation by funding an "Office of Competent Standards" for
UNRWA and similar agencies.
It's also in the interest of Israel to support such an initiative. As it stands, the self-perpetuating bureaucracy of UNRWA is
one of the central factors offering day jobs to members of terror groups, propping up Palestinian dependency, and
perpetuating the myths and falsehoods about Israel which help prevent a solution to the conflict.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
The United Nations, Its Agencies, & U.S. National Interests
International Politics & World Disorder:
War & Peace in the Real World
Page Two
Page One
Israel & the Arabs -- The Israeli-Arab Conflict
Middle East -- Arabs, Arab States,
& Their Middle Eastern Neighbors
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
Islamism & Jihadism -- Radical Islam & Islamic Terrorism
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
U.S. National Security Strategy
Asaf Romirowsky is the Manager of Israel & Middle East Affairs for the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia and an
associate fellow at the Middle East Forum. Jonathan Spyer is a Senior Research Fellow at the Global Research in
International Affairs (GLORIA) Center in Herzliya, Israel.
The foregoing article by Asaf Romirowsky and Jonathan Spyer was originally published in the Washington Times,
December 3, 2007, and can be found on the Internet website
maintained by the Middle East Forum, a think tank which seeks to define and
promote American interests in the Middle East, defining U.S. interests to include fighting radical Islam, working for
Palestinian Arab acceptance of the State of Israel, improving the management of U.S. efforts to promote constitutional
democracy in the Middle East, reducing America's energy dependence on the Middle East, more robustly asserting U.S.
interests vis-à-vis Saudi Arabia, and countering the Iranian threat.
Republished with Permission of the Middle East Forum
Reprinted from the Middle East Forum News
mefnews@meforum.org (MEF NEWS)
December 3, 2007
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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