President Trump Tweets Threat to Cut Off Aid to Palestinians

The Palestinian Authority became the latest entity to come out on the short end of a presidential tweet on Tuesday when President Trump used the social media platform to threaten a loss of American aid. Apparently following the thread that opened with criticism of the “massive” expenditure of aid to Pakistan for which he opined the US gets nothing in return, the president turned to others who similarly fail to respect the United States. He continued the tweet by saying, “we pay the Palestinians HUNDRED OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year and get no appreciation or respect. They don’t even want to negotiate a long overdue peace treaty with Israel. We have taken Jerusalem, the toughest part of the negotiation, off the table, but Israel, for that, would have had to pay more. But with the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?” The tweet was in line with comments US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley made, warning that, “We still very much want to have a peace process. Nothing changes with that. The Palestinians now have to show they want to come to the table. As of now, they’re not coming to the table, but they ask for aid. We’re not giving the aid. We’re going to make sure that they come to the table.” Haley’s version of the threat includes an end to American funding of the United Nations Relief Works Agency, which primarily serves the Palestinian communities.