“We can’t wait” to send terrorists $192 million in American taxpayer money. Obama spikes the Osama football with one hand, mails a check to terrorists with the other.
Did we find out about this in congressional hearings, or a White House announcement? No, we found out about this in a Friday docu-dump:
President Barack Obama has signed a waiver to remove curbs on funding to the Palestinian Authority, declaring the aid to be “important to the security interests of the United States.”
A $192 million aid package was frozen by the US Congress after the Palestinians moved to gain statehood at the United Nations last September.
But in a memo sent to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, published by the White House, the president said it was appropriate to release funds to the authority, which administers the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
In signing the waiver, Obama instructed Clinton to inform Congress of the move, on the grounds that “waiving such prohibition is important to the national security interests of the United States.”
The Department of State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs Appropriations Act of 2012 contained a provision that said none of the funds “may be obligated or expended with respect to providing funds to the Palestinian Authority.”
Obama’s unilateral triple play flies in the face of the will of Congress and established law. It’s also based on a lie.
“The PA has recognized Israel’s right to exist, renounced violence, and accepted previous agreements, including the Roadmap,” he said, referring to the peace plan proposed by the so-called Middle East Quartet — United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations.
In reality, the PA has formed a government with Hamas, which in on the State Department’s list of terrorist groups and has not recognized Israel’s right to exist. The PA itself reneges on its agreements with Israel when it suits them, endorses terrorism as legitimate “resistance,” and its own charter still describes Palestine as an “indivisible” territorial unit that is home only to the Palestinian people.
“President Barack Obama has signed a waiver…”
Could someone please explain what legal principle or statue exists to enable the Executive to simply “waive” the law for specific individuals or cases? Isn’t that a violation of “equal protection” and “due process”? Or is Team O simply flouting any law that it deems inconvenient to its political ends?
If the latter then it would seem we have a case for impeachment!
Think of it this way…“President Barack Obama has signed a decree…”.
Make sense now?
But … how is it that he has control of the funds to do this?
What does Congress have to say about it?
Funding is the job of Congress — not the president.
Oddly, I was just looking at the Constitution — article 1, section 9 — which states: “No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time.”
One might have thought that it would be impossible to construe a “waiver” as “Appropriations made by Law” when the law involved specifically forbade such.
“The PA has recognized Israel’s right to exist, renounced violence, and accepted previous agreements, including the Roadmap,” he said…
Wait, what? When did all this happen?? How could I have missed such a momentous event as the Palestinian Authority renouncing violence and asserting Israel’s right to exist. (That’s “as a Jewish state,” right? Israel has the right to exist as a Jewish state, i.e. no right of return?)