Internal debate inside the Trump administration has intensified as senior officials explore imposing terrorism-related penalties on UNRWA, a move that has sparked fierce legal and humanitarian objections from within the State Department. Two individuals directly familiar with the conversations said the discussions have advanced far enough to alarm diplomats overseeing the U.N. portfolio.
UNRWA, the United Nations agency responsible for assisting Palestinian refugees across Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria, serves as a critical provider of education, food distribution, medical care, and emergency shelter. U.N. leaders and members of the Security Council have repeatedly described the agency as the backbone of humanitarian operations in Gaza, where the two-year conflict between Israel and Hamas has produced catastrophic suffering.
The administration has taken a sharply different view, insisting the agency is compromised by Hamas ties—an accusation UNRWA has forcefully rejected. Washington, once the agency’s principal funder, halted all support in January 2024 after Israel alleged that several UNRWA employees participated in the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas assault that set off the war in Gaza.
The confrontation escalated further when U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio charged in October that UNRWA had become “a subsidiary of Hamas,” a statement that sent shockwaves through diplomatic circles. Despite this rhetoric, insiders say administrators have not settled on whether they are considering sanctions against the entire organization or targeting only specific personnel or operations.
Among the ideas circulating is an FTO designation—labeling UNRWA a “foreign terrorist organization.” The sources said this has been debated at various points, though it remains unclear if it is still under active consideration. Such a label would financially suffocate the agency and sever it from support networks worldwide.
Officials warning against the move caution that disrupting UNRWA outright could devastate relief efforts for millions of displaced Palestinians already struggling amid a severe funding shortfall. The consequences, they argue, could be swift and dangerously destabilizing for the region.
Sanctioning a U.N. agency on terrorism grounds would be a dramatic departure from precedent, particularly given that the United States serves both as a founding member of the United Nations and its host nation. UNRWA was established in 1949 through a U.N. mandate designed to address post-war displacement.
William Deere, who oversees UNRWA’s Washington office, said the agency would be “disappointed” if speculation about an FTO designation proves accurate. He stressed that such a step would be “both unprecedented and unwarranted.” Deere added, “Since January 2024, four independent entities have investigated UNRWA’s neutrality including the U.S. National Intelligence Council. While occurring at different times and from different perspectives, they have all come to the same conclusion: UNRWA is an indispensable, neutral, humanitarian actor.”
A State Department official, responding to a request for comment, took the opposite tack, describing UNRWA as a “corrupt organization with a proven track record of aiding and abetting terrorists.” The official added, “Everything is on the table. No final decisions have yet been made.” The White House declined to comment.
While Washington has a broad menu of sanctions tools—including targeted asset freezes and travel bans—an FTO designation ranks among the severest, typically used only for entities known for intentional attacks on civilians, such as branches of al-Qaeda or the Islamic State.
The possibility of labeling any part of UNRWA as terrorist-linked also raises thorny diplomatic questions about whether foreign governments that fund the agency could themselves be exposed to secondary sanctions. Many of America’s closest allies finance UNRWA’s operations.
The U.N. has acknowledged that nine employees may have been involved in the Oct. 7 attack and were dismissed. Additionally, intelligence later revealed that a Hamas commander killed in Lebanon held a job with the agency. The U.N. has pledged to investigate every allegation thoroughly and continues to request documentation from Israel, which it says has not supplied the evidence it asserts exists.
Those who have followed the internal deliberations say career diplomats and legal experts have repeatedly raised alarms over both humanitarian implications and the legal defensibility of such sanctions. They noted that political appointees have largely driven the push to penalize the agency, while seasoned State Department personnel have urged caution.
One source said the issue has recently been taken up by the State Department’s Bureau of Counterterrorism and by members of the Policy Planning Staff, emphasizing how seriously some within the administration view the matter. Gregory LoGerfo, nominated to lead the counterterrorism bureau, has recused himself from all UNRWA-related deliberations pending Senate confirmation.
Israel has long advocated dismantling the agency, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu branding UNRWA as an institution that fuels anti-Israeli hostility. As of Jan. 30, Israel formally barred UNRWA from operating on Israeli-controlled land—including East Jerusalem, which Israel annexed unilaterally—and suspended all coordination with its personnel. Despite a U.S.-mediated peace agreement between Israel and Hamas in October, ceasefire breaches remain frequent, and substantive advancements toward the agreement’s broader objectives have been slow.
The U.N. continues to report alarming casualty figures among its field staff, noting that more than 370 UNRWA employees have been killed in Gaza since the conflict began.
{Matzav.com}
As lawmakers continue struggling to push through a new draft law, a behind-the-scenes uproar erupted Tuesday over an attempt to slash funding for bnei yeshiva. United Torah Judaism announced early on that it would fight the move, while today, Shas rushed to release its own statement claiming the issue had already been resolved — sparking an embarrassing tussle over who deserved credit. Questions also resurfaced about a long-standing promise to anchor yeshiva funding in the state budget, a commitment that has never been fulfilled.
Although chareidi MKs are formally not part of the coalition, they are expected to support the state budget — reportedly in exchange for passage of a draft law, as pledged by Prime Minister Netanyahu. Meanwhile, efforts to chip away at support for the Olam HaTorah have not subsided.
This time, the budget for yeshiva students was at risk. Treasury officials, together with legal advisers, attempted to reduce funding by lowering the “point value,” the mechanism through which yeshivas receive state support per student.
The first to detect the move was Degel HaTorah chairman MK Moshe Gafni, who issued a statement Tuesday warning:
“The yeshiva budget is expected to drop sharply this month in the point value compared to previous months. This does not concern students who are obligated to enlist according to law, but rather avreichim and foreign students who are fully entitled to this support.”
Gafni added: “It is absurd that the legal advisers are preventing use of funds approved by the government and the Knesset for those eligible. I have contacted all relevant officials to address this immediately. We will not allow this to pass quietly!”
Later, UTJ released an official statement announcing that MK Uri Maklev would convene the faction before the Knesset plenary to address what they called “harassment by the bureaucracy and the Attorney General’s Office against the yeshiva budget.” Shas, at that time, remained silent.
Today, after chareidi lawmakers managed to settle the dispute with the prime minister, Shas rushed to issue the first announcement claiming the matter had been resolved — positioning themselves as the ones who delivered the solution.
The Shas statement read: “Good news for the Olam HaTorah: Through the efforts of Shas chairman Rabbi Aryeh Deri, the funds cut from the yeshiva world have been restored, and the point value will once again stand at approximately 400, as it did at the start of the year. As is known, due to the intervention of the legal advisers, the point value was cut this year to 320. This issue has now been settled.”
The party added: “Shas will continue fighting within the 2026 budget to raise the point value to the highest level it has ever been.”
UTJ published its own statement more than 50 minutes later, saying: “The UTJ faction convened this morning for an urgent session following the harassment by the bureaucracy and Attorney General’s Office against the yeshiva budget. Through the efforts of MK Rabbi Moshe Gafni, funds were reallocated so the point value will not be reduced this month and will be paid at the same rate as in previous months.”
But their release also included a familiar — and embarrassing — pledge: “We will continue working to ensure that the yeshiva budget is included in the base budget for the coming academic year.”
The statement concluded by noting that funding for foreign students and welfare-related institutions “has still not been resolved,” and that the faction would continue working to address the issue.
What Is the “Point Value”?
The “point value” is the fixed amount the government pays a yeshiva per student, with each student type assigned a specific number of points. The total points determine how much state support the institution receives.
A yeshiva student typically counts as one point (around NIS 476–480), while a full-day kollel student is weighted at about 1.8 points (roughly NIS 846).
Nearly two years ago, the High Court ruled on aspects of this system, affecting how support is calculated. The government nevertheless found ways to continue funding yeshivas within the basic framework.
The Elusive Goal: Embedding Yeshiva Funding in the Base Budget
UTJ once again pledged — as it has many times in the past — to anchor the yeshiva budget directly into the state’s base budget rather than relying on coalition allocations. Despite repeated promises before and after elections, this goal has never been achieved.
During the Bennett–Lapid government, when chareidi parties sat in the opposition, the issue took on renewed urgency, and chareidi politicians declared that the next coalition would surely resolve it. That did not happen.
The central question remains: Why did chareidi lawmakers repeatedly agree to rely on temporary coalition funds for something so essential to their constituency, instead of legislating permanent funding in Knesset law?
One insider said: “Maybe we were complacent, thinking we’d be in power for 200 years and would never be thrown out. Bennett, Lapid, and Lieberman taught us a lesson. If we do even half of what they’re doing now, we’ll break records.”
MK Uri Maklev, who headed multiple coalition negotiations for UTJ, described the dilemma as a cost-benefit analysis: “The natural growth of the yeshiva world is ‘unnatural,’ so for every three million shekels we wanted to add, there were days of arguments. We exhausted every negotiation. We fought every time, but you have to know what’s worth fighting for and what isn’t.”
According to Maklev, the Treasury often offered a large one-time sum versus a much smaller permanent increase in the base budget. With many other community needs on the table, the chareidi parties opted for the one-time boosts.
Not everyone accepts that explanation. Some political insiders — including chareidi figures — argued that electoral considerations played a part:
“The truth is it served our political interest. It ensured people would keep voting for us.”
Others within Shas and UTJ rejected that claim: “This is not the only reason we’re in the Knesset. We have many other responsibilities. The yeshiva budget is not the centerpiece of our campaign messaging. Anyone saying otherwise just wants to provoke.”
Some critics pointed at former Finance Committee chairman MK Moshe Gafni: “He was the father and mother of the Finance Committee. How did he not insist this be included every budget cycle? Look at how Koushner is operating now — without brakes.”
Gafni responded sharply: “It’s ingratitude. I didn’t travel abroad; I worked day and night to approve every shekel — battling legal advisers and the media. I added 840 million shekels to the base budget when previously there were only 200 million. To claim I stopped incorporation of the yeshiva budget into the base budget, as if I’m in some internal election — it’s nonsense. It doesn’t interest me.”
Former Shas minister Meshulam Nahari added: “The entire chareidi funding framework is flawed. During the 2009 coalition talks, we had a genuine chance to legislate this and activate the automatic-growth mechanism, but it was lost due to political mistakes. This must be fixed through legislation. We cannot remain beggars.”
{Matzav.com}
A shocking antisemitic assault near a Miami Beach Jewish day school on Tuesday has prompted widespread outrage from city officials, parents, and community leaders. Police say a 38-year-old homeless repeat offender attacked a Jewish teacher just steps from Lehrman Community Day School, striking her, spitting at her, and hurling antisemitic slurs before destroying her cellphone.
According to investigators, the teacher had parked her car along the 500 block of 77th Street and was walking toward the school when the suspect, identified as Slemons Graves, approached her. Police say Graves spat directly in her face, shouted “dirty Jew,” slapped her on the left side of the head, and grabbed her cellphone, smashing it repeatedly until it shattered. The victim later told detectives she had been wearing a Magen David necklace at the time, further underscoring the antisemitic nature of the attack.
The teacher ran toward the school for safety, where a co-worker immediately alerted police. Officers arrived within minutes and launched a sweeping search of the area. Miami Beach police, park rangers, undercover detectives, and a drone operator formed a coordinated response, ultimately locating and arresting Graves. He is being held on multiple charges, including strong-arm battery and battery with prejudice, and remains in custody as a hate-crime investigation proceeds.
Parents at the school expressed shock and fear following the incident. Among them was sports agent Drew Rosenhaus, who has children enrolled at Lehrman. “It really hurts and it hits home,” he said.
Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner issued a forceful condemnation, calling the assault “horrific.” In a social-media statement, he wrote: “A homeless repeat offender was arrested after a physical and verbal antisemitic attack on a Jewish teacher near Lehrman Community Day School. I spoke with our State Attorney’s Office and Police Chief to ensure this case is prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, including hate crime charges. We treat all hate crimes with zero tolerance in Miami Beach to protect our residents, schools, and communities.”
Commissioner David Suarez also denounced the assault, noting that he took the incident “personal” as a Jewish elected official.
Police say Graves will remain behind bars as detectives continue gathering evidence and preparing the case for prosecutors.
{Matzav.com}
