Political Quotes

“Let me say from the outset that I certainly appreciate that the bill's drafters prohibit assessed contributions to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, also known as UNRWA. Now, that is a nice-sounding name. Unfortunately, what the organization does is not so nice. This amendment applies a bill-wide prohibition on making any ``funds appropriated to otherwise made available by this act'' for UNRWA. The issues with UNRWA have been well established and well known in this town and around the globe. They effectively turned a blind eye to terrorists storing weapons at their facilities in 2014 and hired staff with ties to terrorist organizations. Further, and almost maybe even more disturbing, the curriculum of UNRWA's schools, which uses the textbooks of the host government or authorities, has long contained materials that are anti-American, anti- Israel, anti-Semitic, and supportive of violence--direct violence. It just can't be understated, and that is not histrionic. That is not hyperbole. That is what it is. As recently as 2022, watchdog organizations found that UNRWA educational material still contains anti-Semitic and otherwise objectionable material even though it has been brought up time and time again. Yet we keep paying for it, and they keep doing it because they don't care. Why would they care? We keep paying for it.…”