1. Nearly every year since the 1990s, the US Palestinian aid program faced holds & other delays in Congress. Clinton, Bush, & Obama Admins had to negotiate to free the money. And you know who the most effective lobbyist was to get Congress to relent? The Israeli Embassy in DC.
2. Why? Because successive Israeli govts, deeply informed by their security services, saw great value in the program providing for Palestinian humanitarian needs, in part so Israel didn't have to & in part because it provided a more secure environment for Israelis & Palestinians.
3. That was true under PM's Rabin, Peres, Netanyahu (first term), Barak, Sharon, Olmert, and nearly every year of Netanyahu's current premiership. I know first-hand that the IDF and Shin Bet leaderships continue to strongly support these programs.
4. Not sure what was communicated to the Trump Admin this year, but a change this dramatic is implausible. More likely, this decision represents a terrible decision by Trump's team, which seems to think it will put pressure on the Palestinians to come to the table (it won't).
5. The Taylor Force Act prevents US aid from even indirectly supporting payments to terrorists. This aid, which doesn't go to the PA, has been vetted to extreme levels & passed with flying colors, as @Dave_Harden has shown. So none of those issues are relevant to this decision.
6. But with neither Israel nor the Palestinians interested in negotiations & Trump unwilling to even define 2 states as the goal, he now acts recklessly to remove one of the key factors that has helped ensure stability in the West Bank even in times of crisis & stalemate. Why? xx
