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.
Israel Wants ‘Legal Fix’ to US Cutting Palestinian Security Aid
Aid cut threatens Israel-Palestinian coordination
Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.
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