Israel right to cut ties with UNRWA

Canada should place the blame for the humanitarian situation in Gaza where it rightly belongs — on Hamas — rather than chastising Israel

Editor’s Note:

As I mentioned when STLV dropped the short podcast with Einat Wilf on Tuesday, I had intended to put out a similar short podcast based on my interview on Wednesday evening with MK Simcha Rothman. Sadly, there just were not enough hours in the week, and I will get that ready to publish in the next few days. Promise.

Rothman and I also spoke less about UNRWA than I had anticipated and more about other issues – including the controversy over a new draft law; or, as some call it, the draft dodger law. Simcha Rothman’s constituents are religious Zionists; they are devout, work to support their families, and serve in the army. They are also dying and suffering serious injuries in this marathon war period in numbers very disproportionate to their share of the population.

But the Religious Zionists sit in a government with a significant ultra-orthodox, haredi power bloc. And the haredim are strongly opposed to any effort to compel their young men to serve in the army. Vigorously. The haredi Minister of Housing, Yitzhak Goldknopf, has taken up this crusade with such ferocity that even his ultra-orthodox colleagues in the Knesset are annoyed with him. They have learned over decades of effectively manipulating the political system to keep their heads down when things become tense and focused on their entitlements. Goldknopf is a first-term MK. Older in years but with rookie political instincts.

So – the podcast interview with Rothman will come soon.

In the meantime, this op-ed was published today in Canada’s National Post newspaper. We have set out a few paragraphs from the piece. To read it in full, please click on the link to the National Post site.

SDEROT, Israel — On Monday, Israel’s parliament overwhelmingly passed two laws dealing with UNRWA, the acronym for the euphemistically titled United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which self-promotes as a humanitarian organization devoted to the well-being of Palestinian refugees.

Decades ago, when it was founded, that may have been truer. Today, UNRWA is a farce that’s controlled by Hamas and other interests, which openly advocate for the destruction of Israel.

This has been well-chronicled over a long period of time. Among UNRWA’s mandates, for example, is the operation of schools for Palestinian refugees.

At every stage of their schooling, Palestinian children are taught to hate Jews and Israel, which is presented as being an illegitimate state that stole their ancestral land. They learn that to kill Jews is the highest calling and brings honour to their families and nation. The curricula used by UNRWA — and paid for by western countries, with Canada being one of its most generous benefactors—promote extreme violence and blind hatred.

Anyone suggesting that such matters have been addressed and that UNRWA schools just teach reading, writing, and arithmetic is either egregiously uninformed or intentionally lying.