President Trump Threatens to Withhold Aid to Palestinians

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[URL="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/02/us/politics/trump-clinton-huma-abedin.html?ribbon-ad-idx=3&rref=politics"]source[/URL]

[QUOTE]WASHINGTON — President Trump weighed in Tuesday on the stalled Middle East peace process, saying that the Palestinian Authority was taking “[URL="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/948322496591384576"]hundreds of millions of dollars[/URL]” in [URL="https://fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/RS22967.pdf"]assistance from the United States[/URL] while showing no “appreciation or respect,” a blunt, harsh criticism likely to escalate tensions.

Mr. Trump’s comments represented a tougher tone toward the Palestinians than he has generally taken, suggesting that he is moving toward pressuring them to come to the table by threatening punishment rather than enticing them with promises of a deal that would benefit them.

He also chided the Palestinians for not trying to strike a peace agreement with Israel. “But with the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?” Mr. Trump [URL="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/948322497602220032"]said in Twitter messages[/URL] on Tuesday evening.

In threatening to cut off aid to the Palestinians, Mr. Trump seemed to suggest that the United States has invested that money for future consideration at peace talks. But past administrations viewed aid to the Palestinians — more than $5 billion since the mid-1990s — as a way to keep the volatile situation from blowing up further, as it has in the past during two intifadas, or violent uprisings.

For all their tension, the Palestinians and Israelis cooperate on security to an extent, and the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, could curtail that in response to an aid cutoff, as he has periodically threatened to do. Such a move could complicate Israel’s ability to combat terrorism.[/QUOTE]