The chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Middle East subcommittee has introduced a non-binding resolution to cut U.S. funding to the UN if it unilaterally approves a PA state.
U.S. Congressman Steve Chabot (R-Ohio), the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Middle East subcommittee in the U.S. House of Representatives, has introduced a non-binding resolution to cut U.S. funding to the UN if it unilaterally approves a Palestinian Authority state.
The resolution calls on the Secretary of State to withdraw American funding for the UN General Assembly if it “adopts a resolution in favor of recognizing a state of Palestine outside of or prior to a final status agreement negotiated between, and acceptable to, the State of Israel and the Palestinians.”
Chabot’s measure has not yet garnered co-sponsors, but Chabot says he expects a “significant number” of his colleagues to support it when Congress returns to session next week.
Jonathan S. Tobin, editor of Commentary Magazine, wrote this week a strong endorsement of the resolution – but added that it should be merely “the first shot” fired in the struggle to ensure that the UN does not approve the controversial PA state.
Instead of simply “worrying about what will happen” in the UN General Assembly this September, Tobin writes, and instead of threatening only to veto the resolution, the U.S. must take concrete steps to make sure that the UN body does not approve a unilateral PA state. In addition to threaten to cut funding to the UN, Tobin states, the PA itself must be targeted:
“Congress should also be focusing on the fact that by signing a unity pact with the Hamas terrorists, the Palestinian Authority has rendered itself ineligible for the hundreds of millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars that it continues to receive.”