After the Trump administration did its best to turn off the cash pipeline to Islamic terrorists in Israel, the Biden administration is turning it back on.

Yisrael Medad at JNS takes a deep dive into some of the initial numbers which may be as high as $100 to $125 million.

But quite stealthily, it came out that America is preparing to transfer as much as $100 million in aid for Palestinians—a sum that could reach $125 million, according to some sources.

Foreign aid isn’t a single big check, it’s death by a thousand cuts with money being directed across a dizzying variety of agencies and departments. That’s why it’s been so hard to stop aid to the PLO and Hamas because even keeping track of which money is going where is challenging.

But one particular number leaps out at me.

In an AP report, we learn that $5.4 million of the aid will be going “to Palestinian civic groups, including possibly independent media, in the West Bank and Gaza.” The term “independent media” is somewhat of an oxymoron as there are no truly independent media agencies in the Palestinian Authority, at least those outside of jail or interrogation centers. 

Realistically, this is going to go to assorted anti-Israel NGOs. As NGO Monitor notes, past USAID media grants have gone to BDS groups.

In 2017-2019, Women Media and Development was awarded $500,000. In 2016, TAM signed the “Palestinian Women’s Call for Worldwide Women’s Endorsement of BDS,” accusing Israel of “ethnic cleansing.”

In 2016-2019, NED granted Filastiniyat $147,300 to “strengthen the role of female journalists in Palestinian media and public life.”

Filastiniyat was a signatory to an August 29, 2019 open letter to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, calling to ”Release of the United Nations Database of Businesses Engaged in Activities Related to Israeli Settlements.” This UN blacklist of Israeli and international businesses, published on February 12, 2020, was ordered by the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) and is meant to bolster BDS campaigns, singling out Israel.

In March 2016, Filastiniyat signed a “Palestinian Women’s Call for Worldwide Women’s Endorsement of BDS.”

Not to mention this winner.

Keshev is receiving a three-year grant, $1 million, for “Press for Peace: Improving the Israeli and Palestinian Media and Public Discourse,” and a sub-award of $403,873 for a two-year joint project with Givat Haviva, “Communicating Peace.” According to the Keshev website, “Keshev promotes a more moderate media…Keshev urges media editors to carry out the duties incumbent upon media in a democracy and teaches news consumers to evaluate news coverage more critically…” These are subjective terms that contrast with Keshev’s narrow partisan and ideological agendas, as well as efforts to manipulate Israeli media.

For instance, in a report funded by USAID, Keshev, without evidence, accused the Israeli media of “ignoring the wider context of the story and Israel’s responsibility for the continuation of the conflict.” In another USAID-sponsored report regarding the “Free Gaza Flotilla’s” confrontation with the Israeli Navy, Keshev alleged that “the message that the activists tried to present against the policy of blockade [of Gaza]…remained outside the public discourse in Israel.”

The upshot is that USAID will go back to funding anti-Israel propaganda in Hamas and PLO parts of Israel, as it already funds anti-Israel propaganda in Israel. And potentially millions could go to hate groups that support and promote BDS.