Commentary
While I served as the deputy administrator and chief operating officer of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the No. 2 position in the $40 billion U.S. government agency, I often asked why it was in America’s national security interest to fund the Palestinians. The answers from career staff that I would inevitably get were: First, because it’s in our national interest to promote a two-state solution. Second, if we and other like-minded countries don’t fund the Palestinians, they might fall into the arms of Islamic radicals. Third, this is a way for us to guide them to become developed—the so-called journey to self-reliance—and finally, the Israelis want us to.