Israeli security experts, government leaders and NGOs have weighed in on reports from last week indicating that the U.S. administration has frozen funding to the Palestinian Authority Security Forces.
The PASF has been tasked with cracking down on Islamic terrorism, but Israeli NGO Regavim, dedicated to the protection of the country’s national lands and resources, released an extensive report on Jan. 2 highlighting the involvement of members of PASF in terrorism targeting Israelis.
Brig. Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser, head of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security (JISS) and a member of the Israel Defense and Security Forum (IDSF), told JNS, “It’s too early to tell how much of an impact the freeze on the PASF will have. We’ll have to see if this freeze is only temporary or long-term.”
He added, “Abu Mazen [Palestinian Authority head Mahmoud Abbas] relies on his security forces to keep the P.A. afloat, but they are a very weakened and even a failed institution.”
Kuperwasser pointed out that members of the PASF, while not in an official capacity, have carried out many terrorist attacks against Israelis over the years.
He added that Abbas recently tried to make it seem like he was abandoning the P.A.’s “pay for slay” program, in which terrorists (and their families) receive monthly financial compensation on a sliding scale, based on acts of terrorism against Israelis.
“If the U.S. administration realizes that Abbas is bluffing, which is probably the case, then it might have a negative impact on the willingness of the administration to once again support the PASF,” Kuperwasser said.
Funding loophole
Maurice Hirsch, director of the Initiative for Palestinian Authority Accountability and Reform at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs (JCFA) and the former director of the Military Prosecution for Judea and Samaria, told JNS, “One of the funding loopholes left open by the Taylor Force Act in 2018 was the continued U.S. assistance to the P.A. for security purposes.
“This aid was meant to support the P.A. efforts to fight terror. The problem was that the P.A. never fought any terror against Israel. Rather, the P.A. was either an active participant in the terror, or turned a convenient blind eye to the rest.”
Hirsch explained, “The P.A. has always seen the U.S. funding as an endorsement of its participation in terror. If the goal of President [Donald] Trump is to promote peace, the temporary freeze on this support to the P.A. should become permanent, as part of a wider strategy to ultimately recognize that the Oslo Accords have failed and that it’s time to dismantle the P.A.”
IDF reservist Avi Abelow, who has been serving with his unit in the Judean Hills during Israel’s “Swords of Iron” operation, told JNS, “There is no difference between Hamas and the P.A. They both have the same goal: to destroy Israel, just with different strategies. They both fund terror.”
Abelow continued, “The P.A. even gave out $97 million to Hamas terrorists who participated in the Oct. 7, [2023], atrocities. All of Israel, and the world, will be safer when the P.A. is defunded, disbanded, and Israel is given full sovereignty and security control over Judea and Samaria.
“I hope this is a permanent ending to U.S. funding a terror regime whose leaders pocket most of the money and keep their people as eternal victims and pawns in a strategic battle to destroy Israel,” Abelow said.
Knesset member Ohad Tal (Religious Zionism Party) told JNS that “President Trump is simply acting logically.”
He elaborated, “The P.A. is a corrupt entity that encourages and supports terrorism, and there is no reason to fund it or support its continued existence. For the past year and a half, we have been going through a painful process of weaning ourselves from the lies and illusions we have been addicted to for the past 30 years.
“Trump is simply helping everyone come back to face the truth and offering real solutions,” Tal said.
Solidarity with Hamas
After applauding the funding freeze in a statement shared with JNS on Wednesday, Regavim issued another statement a day later pointing out that Fatah (P.A.) terrorists joined Hamas in the Gaza “release ceremony” last week for the corpses of the Bibas family and Oded Lifshitz, reaffirming their solidarity with Hamas.
According to Regavim, “Only one day after the Trump administration announced the suspension of funding for the PASF, Fatah terrorists stood shoulder to shoulder with Hamas terrorists at the gruesome ceremony in Khan Yunis marking the handover of the bodies of hostages.”
The statement continued, “Official Telegram channels of the Fatah Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades confirmed their members’ presence at the event, with photos also revealing operatives from the military wings of Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and the Al-Ahrar movement in Gaza. Gazan media highlighted this multi-group participation as ‘an expression of internal Gazan unity.'”
(The Palestinian Movement of Al-Ahrar (“The Free”) is a Hamas-supported network founded by former Fatah operatives shortly after Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007.)
“The importance of this public statement of solidarity should not be underestimated,” explained Naomi Kahn, director of the International Division at Regavim. “On Oct. 7, 2023, and every day since, the P.A. has publicly and enthusiastically expressed its approval, support and partnership with the butchers of Hamas.
“The participation of Fatah, the ruling party of the P.A., in the macabre celebration of the murder of women, infants and elderly Jews at the hands of Hamas is just one more expression of the P.A.’s true colors.
“While the U.S. decision to suspend funding to the P.A.’s so-called ‘security forces’ is a welcome development, it is at best a first step toward pulling the plug on the delusion of the P.A. as a partner for peace,” Kahn said.
“The PASF—trained and armed by the U.S. and other well-meaning countries—are, and always have been, terror networks committed to the murder of Jews and the eradication of the Jewish state. They are, and always have been, indistinguishable from Hamas—and they proudly declare their identification with Hamas’s objectives and methods,” she said.
An IDF spokesperson told JNS he had no comment on the Trump administration’s decision to suspend funding of PASF.