PLO makes light of cut in US aid, says it won't change PA policies
PLO: America's decrease in aid to the PA
"has already failed [previously]...
to influence Palestinian political decision making"
by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik
Headline: "Majdalani: 'The decrease in American aid is a traditional means of pressure which will not cause the Palestinian leadership to concede its national position'"
"PLO Executive Committee Member Dr. Ahmed Majdalani said... in an interview with Radio Mawtini: 'This is not the first time that the US is decreasing the aid to the Palestinian people as part of its pressure on the Palestinian leadership to change its political position. This is a traditional step that has already failed [previously].' Likewise, he emphasized that these positions had previously failed to influence the Palestinian political decision making."
[Fatah's Information and Culture Commission website, Oct. 26, 2015]
The ease and even contempt with which the Palestinian leadership has received the announcement about the cut in US financial support, may be due to the fact that such cuts in aid initiated by Congress in the past have been temporary and often overruled by US presidents.The following is the text of the waiver exercised by US President Obama in 2013 to waive US legislation that prohibited the US from giving financial support to the PA:
Presidential Memorandum -- Waiver of Restriction on Providing Funds to the Palestinian Authority
MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF STATE
SUBJECT: Waiver of Restriction on Providing Funds to the Palestinian Authority
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 7040(b) of the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2012 (Division I, Public Law 112-74) (the "Act") as carried forward by the Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2013 (Division F, Public Law 113-6) (the "CR"), I hereby certify that it is important to the national security interests of the United States to waive the provisions of section 7040(a) of the Act as carried forward by the CR, in order to provide funds appropriated to carry out chapter 4 of part II of the Foreign Assistance Act, as amended, to the Palestinian Authority.
You are directed to transmit this determination to the Congress, with a report pursuant to section 7040(d) of the Act as carried forward by the CR, and to publish this determination in the Federal Register.
BARACK OBAMA
[White House website, July 26, 2013, http://1.usa.gov/1MbUFLy]