The National Council of Young Israel (NCYI) last week thanked Jason Greenblatt, President Trump’s Special Representative for International Negotiations and Middle East Envoy, for his comments yesterday at a meeting of the UN Security Council (UNSC).
In his remarks, Greenblatt told the UNSC that it should condemn Hamas and the Islamic Jihad for their relentless attacks on Israel. In addition, Greenblatt noted how Hamas takes advantage of Gaza’s residents by deliberately putting them in danger and denying them the financial aid that is intended to assist them.
Greenblatt also spoke of the failures of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which provides assistance to over five million “Palestinian refugees,” and called for the agency to be dismantled. After contributing more than $350 million to UNRWA in 2017 and $60 million in 2018, the Trump administration announced in September 2018 that no more US money will be forthcoming until the agency, which it considers “irredeemably flawed,” undergoes reforms.
“With his remarks at the UN, Mr. Greenblatt made it abundantly clear that the United States expects the international community to hold Hamas and other terrorist groups accountable for their gutless attacks on Israeli civilians,” said NCYI President Farley Weiss. “While other nations sit idly by as Israel is terrorized on a daily basis, the Trump administration has made it known that the United States has Israel’s back and will continue working to further strengthen the US-Israel relationship.”
“We echo Mr. Greenblatt’s concerns about the UNRWA and endorse his call for the organization’s dismantling,” Weiss added. “The UNRWA lost its way and is not worthy of the international community’s patronage. The nations of the world cannot continue issuing blank checks to an entity that is fundamentally flawed, both procedurally and politically, and we commend Mr. Greenblatt and the Trump administration for taking the lead on this critical issue.”