Israel Wants ‘Legal Fix’ to US Cutting Palestinian Security Aid

Aid cut threatens Israel-Palestinian coordination

Jason Ditz 

Posted onJanuary 31, 2019CategoriesNewsTagsIsrael, Palestine

Israeli officials say that they are pushing the US State Department to come up with a “legal fix” to the Anti-Terrorism Clarification Act, an act that is coming into force Friday and effectively will cut all security aid to the Palestinian Authority. 

Under the act, if the Palestinians kept getting any US aid, they would be open to huge US lawsuits. The Palestinians announced they would forgo any further aid, aid which will be cut as of midnight Thursday. 

While Israeli officials are normally fine with Congress passing bills to stick it to the Palestinians, this time it might actually inconvenience them, as the sudden loss of funding is liable to interfere with Israel-Palestinian coordination. 

Israel and the Palestinian Authority have had troubled ties for years, and the amount of cooperation that is ongoing at this point is trivial above and beyond security cooperation. If the US act inadvertently severs one of these last ties, the Israeli government clearly fears the Palestinian leadership may take rash steps to withdraw from international accords. 

https://news.antiwar.com/2019/01/31/israel-wants-legal-fix-to-us-cutting-palestinian-security-aid/