President Obama sent off a cool $221 million to the Palestinian Authority in the final hours of his White House tenure, despite the fact two Republicans put a hold on the spending.
Obama’s administration sent word of the disbursement to then-incoming President Donald Trump just hours before the inauguration ceremony.
The Associated Press reported Congress had previously approved the spending. But House Foreign Affairs Chairman Ed Royce and Rep. Kay Granger, who serves as a member of the Appropriations Committee, put a hold on the spending as a means of pressuring the Palestinian Authority to stop seeking membership in organizations like the United Nations.
The $221 million is supposed to be used for humanitarian causes for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. But it’s also intended for political reasons.
The Palestinians, along with their partners at the United Nations, have been pressing for years for Israel to stop building in the settlement areas. The former Obama administration sided with the Palestinians on that point, and outright warned Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that his continued construction in the zones was destroying any chance for a two-state solution.
Trump, on the other hand, has set himself as a true friend of Israel.
The Jerusalem Post reported earlier this month that Trump said a halt to settlement builds should not be a condition for peace talks.
“Thousands of missiles [are] being launched into Israel,” Trump said, the Jerusalem Post reported. “Who would put up with that? Who would stand for it? I’d love to negotiate peace. But I mean a lasting peace, not a peace that lasts for two weeks and they start launching missiles again.”
Meanwhile, various media reported Trump’s first formal invitation to a foreign official to visit him at the White House was just extended to Netanyahu,
