Bolton: Threaten UN funding to stop Palestinian statehood resolution
In today’s Wall Street Journal, John Bolton advises Congress to make clear that any Palestinian statehood resolution in the General Assembly will lead to cuts in U.S. funding for the organization: [W]e should turn to Congress, which has a rich history of dealing with U.N. actions it doesn’t appreciate….Congress should legislate broadly that any U.N. ...
In today's Wall Street Journal, John Bolton advises Congress to make clear that any Palestinian statehood resolution in the General Assembly will lead to cuts in U.S. funding for the organization:
In today’s Wall Street Journal, John Bolton advises Congress to make clear that any Palestinian statehood resolution in the General Assembly will lead to cuts in U.S. funding for the organization:
[W]e should turn to Congress, which has a rich history of dealing with U.N. actions it doesn’t appreciate….Congress should legislate broadly that any U.N. action that purports to acknowledge or authorize Palestinian statehood will result in a cutoff of all U.S. contributions to the offending agency. If the General Assembly ignored this warning, all funds would be cut off to the bloated Secretariat in New York, but not to separate agencies like the World Health Organization, the International Atomic Energy Agency, and others with their own governing bodies and funding mechanisms. [snip]
Although the General Assembly will not convene again until September, there is no time to waste. Fatah’s coalition with Hamas already provides statutory grounds (since the U.S. lists Hamas as a terrorist organization) to eliminate funding for the Palestinian Authority. Reducing U.S. funding to the U.N. is the next available, highly visible, target of opportunity. It presents the U.N. membership with a fascinating question: Would they rather recognize Palestinian statehood, or keep America’s money?
Thus far, the Obama administration has managed to protect America’s UN dues fairly effectively from budget cuts as part of its overall strategy of more constructive engagement with the organization. But the Palestine resolution could be a game-changer, and you can bet that those diplomats charged with managing the U.S.-UN relationship are praying for a way out.
David Bosco is a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. He is the author of The Poseidon Project: The Struggle to Govern the World’s Oceans. Twitter: @multilateralist
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