Congressman Pappas does not support aid for Israel; he voted against H.R. 6126. At the same time, Congressman Pappas supports the administration’s efforts to place your tax money at high risk of ending up in the hands of Middle Eastern terrorists.
About three weeks ago, the White House promised to send Palestinian civilians about $100M in aid. Mr. Biden said, “This money will support more than 1 million displaced… Palestinians, including [for] emergency needs in Gaza.”
But Mr. Biden’s Inspector General at USAID is saying that’s not necessarily true. The IG says some of that money will likely go to terrorists, e.g., Hamas. The USG will give $100M in cash to international aid organizations but end up supplying the aid to terror groups.
This happens one of three ways: 1) The Terrorists force or coerce the aid workers to give them money, using threats or targeted violence; 2) Hamas and others impose a tax or fee on the cash or supplies; or 3) Terrorists demand the aid or cash goes to certain people or groups of people that are terror supporters or sympathizers.
The IG lists several examples of these things happening previously in the Middle East. The prior diversions resulted in millions of your taxpayer dollars going to fund international terror organizations. But don’t worry, be happy, the IG says.
This time, they (USAID) will work very hard to prevent that from happening. Doesn’t it kind of make you wonder: Why didn’t they prevent it from happening in the first place…? Hey Just asking. Don’t we all understand who we are dealing with? When did you become aware of who and what they are?
This time, the IG says they will be conducting some pre-vetting measures… of some kind. They will be asking aid organizations to certify in writing that they won’t do anything bad with the money. Isn’t that reassuring? They have done so well safeguarding our money in the past…
The day after the report was released, Mr. Biden’s special envoy to the region told reporters there is no evidence that Hamas is diverting or stealing aid once it goes into the Gaza Strip. Good thing our government has two sides of its mouth to talk out of.
But we have reports from the United Nations that Hamas is, in fact, stealing from their warehouses right now. Hamas is taking mostly fuel and medical supplies. Despite this, Mr. Biden plans to move forward with giving $100M of your taxpayer dollars to the “Palestinians.”
What this administration is, is stupid. Offering $100M in aid to organizations, knowing that some, maybe most of it will likely go to terrorists, is beyond ignorant. Israel is our ally. We should not be funding their attacker.
There are better options.
First, we could do nothing. Let Arab governments provide aid. Second, we could do what Jordan just did. They coordinated with the Israeli military several days ago to airdrop in medical supplies. They cut out the middlemen: the international aid organizations. They got the supplies directly to the people.
Sure, Hamas fighters probably rushed to the drop zones and took some amount of the food, water, or medicine. But compare that to dropping off pallets of cash to international organizations or the United Nations, knowing Hamas and Hezbollah are the likely recipients. Doesn’t it seem like doing nothing or maybe doing the airdrops are the better options?
Reach out to Congressman Pappas and let him know how much you appreciate his efforts (202-225-5456).
