UNRWA was created to perpetuate the refugee status of Arabs who left Israel in 1948. Which makes no sense if you think about it, because if you leave a place of your own volition, which is what they did, you’re not a refugee. Otherwise, imagine all the American tourists visiting Paris, for instance, suddenly designated as refugees! But I digress.

UNRWA not only perpetuates the refugee status of those who left Israel of their own volition but extends this status to the children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren of those who left Israel of their own volition in 1948. That gives UNRWA license to claim hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees, when actually, there are only a few thousand people left from that time who qualify under this very iffy definition as actual refugees, since they, ahem, left Israel of their own volition, and in fact, were begged to stay by the leaders of the fledgling Jewish State.

At any rate, Jared Kushner is now working to phase out funding for UNRWA, whose only mandate is an anti-Israel mandate, and always was. This is a good thing. And we should widely praise the Trump Administration for this effort.