US aid to the Palestinians increases violence and terror, not peace
A comparison of the aid provided by the United States to the Palestinians over the period 2011 through 2022, with the number of people murdered as a direct result of Palestinian terror provides a glaring insight: US aid to the Palestinians fuels terror, not peace.
US aid to the Palestinians
According to statistics taken from periodic reports published by the US Congressional Research Service, from 2011 (the year Palestinian Media Watch exposed the PA’s terror-rewarding Pay-for-Slay policy) through 2022, US aid to the Palestinians was reflected by two trends.
As shown in the graph below from 2011 through 2019, both under the Obama and Trump administrations, US aid to the PA steadily dropped. Since 2020, under the Biden administration, US aid to the Palestinians was restored and has spiked.
The categories in the graph are the 3 main types of US aid to Palestinian Authority (Economic Support Fund (ESF); International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement (INCLE); and Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO)) and US aid to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
Victims of terror
During that same period, the number of people (Israelis and foreigners presumed by Palestinian terrorists to be Israelis) murdered as a direct result of Palestinian terror shows parallel trends. During the years the US aid was rising the numbers murdered kept rising. During the years US aid was dropping the number of murder victims likewise dropped.
While in 2011, 23 Israelis and foreigners were murdered as a direct result of Palestinian terror, the number plummeted, predominantly following the policy of the Trump administration to cut all aid to the Palestinians, to 3 people murdered in 2020. Immediately after the Biden administration resumed the US aid to the Palestinians, Palestinian terror resurged with 19 people murdered in 2021 and - in parallel to a further growth in the US aid - 29 people murdered in 2022.
Slightly expanding the statistics and dividing them per each US administration shows the same picture.
During the period fromJanuary 20, 2009 through January 20, 2017, the Obama administration provided the Palestinians a total of US$ 6,466,700,000 in aid. During that same period, 140 Israelis and foreigners were murdered as a direct result of Palestinian terror, an average of 17.5 people per year.
During the period from January 20, 2017 through January 20, 2021, the Trump administration cut the aid (including stopping all aid to UNRWA) to the Palestinians to US$669,900,000. During that same period, 42 Israelis and foreigners were murdered as a direct result of Palestinian terror, an average of 10.5 people per year.
Just since January 20, 2021 through December 2022, the Biden administration has provided the Palestinians with US$ 1,091,800,000 in aid. During that same period, 46 Israelis and foreigners were murdered as a direct result of Palestinian terror, an average of 23 people per year. In January and February of 2023, as the US aid to the Palestinians continued to flow freely, 14 Israelis and foreigners have been murdered as a direct result of Palestinian terror.
While the US support to the Palestinians, as represented inter alia by the US aid, should be, and is ostensibly, devoted to promoting peace, in practice the Palestinians see the unconditional US support as an opportunity to promote terror. While US aid to the Palestinians flows freely, Palestinian terrorists feel emboldened and murder Israelis. Only when the US demonstrates moral clarity and stops aid because the PA promotes terror, do the Palestinians understand that terror does not pay.