Three cheers for Palestinian officials in New York: They’re foolish, malevolent and shortsighted — and they’ve just done US taxpayers a considerable favor.
As part of their unilateral push for statehood, the Palestinians this week elbowed their way into the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, which the US funds to the tune of $80 million a year.
Taxpayers should get to keep that cash, thanks to a US law barring contributions to UN agencies that admit “Palestine” as a member-state before it makes a deal with Israel — that is, before it is a state.
Next, the Palestinians aim to join 15 more “specialized agencies” at the UN, including obscure bodies like the Universal Postal Union, which most Americans have never heard of or ever imagined they were paying to prop up. The agencies also include the nuclear watchdog IAEA and the World Health Organization, which has the State Department sweating.
The US ambassador to UNESCO pledged to “continue our efforts to find ways to support” the agency, and the State Department is eyeing its “options” — meaning it’s looking for ways to flout a clear legal mandate.
But that’s a fool’s errand; if UNESCO is so eager to give up its honeypot, that’s all to the good. Withholding funds from just a few of the 16 agencies the Palestinians want to join could save taxpayers over $1 billion, according to White House figures.
And why stop there?
Better to speed up the process and defund all of Turtle Bay, where US dollars are burned by the barrel.
In fiscal year 2010, the US pumped an unbelievable $7.7 billion into the UN and its many agencies, up $1.3 billion — 20 percent — from just a year before, when US funding had already reached a record high.
That’s money the US could use to better ends at home and abroad without Turtle Bay middlemen stealing a slice of the pie.
So just cut to the chase — and cut out the UN.