Moving to Israel

As many of the audience of this moving to Israel blog is from North America, I thought it would be interesting to point out the investigative report released this week by the Center for Near East Policy Research (NEPR) that U.S. assistance to the fledgling Palestinian Authority military puts Israel in a precarious position despite congressional limits on aid to the PA. The Congress had intended the limits to prevent the aid from undermining Israel’s security.

Journalist David Bedein, head of the Jerusalem branch of the NEPR, reports that the U.S. gives Fatah-affiliated PA forces training and military equipment, while at the same time the Fatah-led PA attempts to reconcile with Hamas, which the U.S. recognizes as a terrorist organization.

One risk of America’s heavy involvement in building up PA troops is that the situation could lead to an open attempt to limit Israel’s counterterror options, Bedein said. “Let’s say that Israel wants to go after [Fatah] terrorists – there will be a sort of American veto, because the terrorists are affiliated with the Americans… This has extremely serious implications.”

This should be very disturbing to all of us, particularly we American born Israelis who have a vested interest in all the joint ventures of the U.S. and Israel.

The full NEPR report will be available to the general public on the Israel Behind the News website on Wednesday so everyone is urged to check it out.

Ari