With Elise Stefanik as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, a congressional regulation prohibiting American funding for UNRWA, effective until March 2025, and prestigious think tanks like the Washington Institute opposing its funding, UNRWA, the Middle Eastern arm of the globalist anti-Israel and anti-American agenda in the region, finds itself in trouble.
Make no mistake, this is not the first time that the organization, which has served as a cover for terrorism for 77 years under the guise of humanitarian aid for refugees, is in Trump’s crosshairs. The challenge for its supporters, however, is that this time it might be a fatal blow.
The dramatic meetings organized by far-left officials entrenched in key positions in the US State Department (traditionally anti-Israel) didn’t help in 2018 when Jared Kushner initiated the cessation of American funding to the organization.
They won’t help in 2025 either, as these officials once again scramble to meet with representatives of the incoming administration to ensure it won’t impose a veto or sanctions on UNRWA.
After all, it’s hard to argue with a proven track record of funding, nurturing, and educating for terrorism and the murder of Jews.
As a reminder, the Trump administration has fond memories of dealing blows to UNRWA. Last time, it was one of several steps culminating in the Abraham Accords. Back in the summer of 2018, Kushner boldly announced in an op-ed for ‘Foreign Affairs’ that "we will announce a new policy towards UNRWA at the appropriate time." By September of that year, the policy was implemented, marking another step on the path of peace through the only rational pathway - bypassing the Palestinians.
In September 2018, the Trump administration ceased American funding for UNRWA, whereas by 2021 the Biden administration later reinstated it. Under the Trump Middle-east leadership of Berkowitz, Greenblatt, and Kushner, the previous administration adopted a fresh and successful approach to establish peace in the Middle East. This approach, praised by Henry Kissenger as a “work of genius” was based on the understanding that the Palestinian leadership—increasingly alienated in the region—was the primary obstacle to achieving an agreement between Jews and Arabs.
As part of this philosophy, Trump also significantly reduced aid to the Palestinian Authority, imposing heavy economic sanctions on Mahmoud Abbas, alongside symbolic and humiliating measures such as restrictions on PLO activities in the U.S. and cutting budgets by hundreds of millions - all independently of anything requested by Israel.
The close relationship between Mike Pompeo and senior figures in Israel and the strong ties between Ambassador Friedman and the Israeli government contributed to the ushering of this policy. However, these were accompanied by a clear macro-strategy of retreating from the Palestinian vector, in which U.S. policy had been entrenched since the 1980s with no success.
Meanwhile, relations between the Trump administration and the UN continued to hit new lows during this period. We all remember the open hostility of the UN Secretary-General (who assumed office just two and a half weeks before Trump in 2017) towards the president, Nikki Haley’s speeches exposing the hypocrisy of the anti-Israel organization, and the general hostility between the administration and the globalist body on issues such as climate, immigration, borders, health, and more.
The mistrust between the Trump administration and senior UN officials reflected a widespread sentiment among Americans, who grew increasingly hostile to the Paris Climate Agreement, resentful of the massive funding the U.S. provides to the UN’s Anti-American Agencies, and skeptical of a body dominated by dictatorial states that paradoxically hold key positions in the UN Human Rights Council.
Nevertheless, from the perspective of Trump’s Middle Eastern peace vision, continuing the assault on UNRWA—beyond its ideological and political overtones—also benefits American foreign policy.
It provides greater control over events in Gaza, removes a destabilizing factor that supports terrorist organizations, restores the UN to its proper and functional role as an observer rather than an active participant in conflict resolution, and changes the chessboard to include only players willing to adhere to Trump’s rules—among both Israelis and Arabs.
Extending the UNRWA prohibition, or simply dismantling the organization, will have dramatic implications, especially given that, like other aid organizations, the bulk of UNRWA’s funding comes from American taxpayers.
And in Israel? The Knesset passed two laws significantly restricting UNRWA’s ability to operate in Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem during 2024. The first law bans UNRWA from operating within Israel, particularly impacting its activities in East Jerusalem, but also affecting the UN aid agency’s operations in the West Bank, which are managed from Jerusalem. The second law prohibits any Israeli government official from engaging with UNRWA and revokes all diplomatic immunity for its employees.
Until the American administration ties the loose ends between Riyadh and Jerusalem and begins organizing the Middle East anew, there’s the reality on the ground: While UNRWA may function as Hamas’s laundromat for money and weapons, it remains a logistical infrastructure capable of providing humanitarian supplies alongside its support for terrorism. For some, this dual function is tolerable for now. From Israel’s and the Jewish people’s perspective, it’s another step towards exposing the hypocrisy of Palestinian humanitarianism, represented most clearly by UNRWA. It will also demonstrate once again that Trump disregards the pro-Hamas mob that has flooded streets and campuses over the past year, as part of the conservative awakening in Europe—a positive trend for Israel.
Add to this the demotion of Masad Boulos from senior advisor to just another advisor on Trump’s Middle-East team, and the appointment of Pro-Israel Steven Witkoff, and Mike Huckabee as Ambassodor to israel, and the outcome seems promising.
Still, if there’s one thing we’ve learned over the past year and a half, it’s that what the Americans say matters less than what Israelis do. The Netanyahu government had plenty of opportunities to leverage American credit to take action on the ground but refrained during 2017 - 2021.
It was weak and indecisive compared to the American administration.
Ultimately, this is a matter of Israeli initiative, something Trump himself cannot change.
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