Marco Rubio, Mark Kirk Warn John Kerry on Gaza Aid

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., teamed up with U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., on Wednesday to chide U.S. Secretary of State John Kerrys plans to send $150 million to the United Nations Refugee and Works Agency (UNRWA) over its role in actions directed against Israel. The senators pointed to three cases of rockets at a UNRWA facility in Gaza and wrote Kerry to demand taxpayer dollars wont be used against Israel.

Given UNRWAs record and the absence of an independent investigation into its actions during the conflict, we were dumbfounded when, on October 12th, you reiterated, without any qualification, that the United States would provide more than $150 million to UNRWA programs in Gaza, the senators wrote Kerry on Wednesday. This blind support sends the wrong message to an institution that has already become far too dependent on the largesse of the American taxpayer and repeatedly failed to ensure that its facilities and resources are not used by terrorists who wish to sow chaos and instability rather than aid the Palestinian people.

The United States should assist the people of Gaza as they rebuild after yet another Hamas-caused conflict. But this support cannot come at the expense of Israels security, the senators continued. We will not support the provision of future U.S. assistance to entities or projects in Gaza unless the State Department assures Congress that UNRWA or the relevant recipient entity has imposed independently audited accountability measures to verifiably prevent any U.S. assistance from aiding, directly or indirectly, extremists efforts to re-arm or lay the groundwork for future attacks against Israel.