Since 1994, the United States, through the Agency for International Development (USAID), has funneled nearly three billion dollars to Gaza, with virtually no interruption following the 2007 Hamas takeover. Yesterday, in addition to the $960 million dollars already pledged by Barak Obama following Israel's Operation Cast Lead in 2009, the President promised $400 million dollars more.

The European Union has pledged nearly as much for the same period. Turkey, on the other hand, for all its propaganda bluster in support of the Gazans, ranks 26th on the aid list, below Belgium, Finland and Ireland. In 2009 the munificent Turks ponied up a whopping $1.08 million to UNRWA, the UN agency tasked to dole out foreign largess. In contrast, Sweden gave $48.6 million. Kuwait and Saudi Arabia are the only other Muslim nations that show up on the donor list.

With a GDP of nearly a trillion dollars, the skinflints of Ankara apparently would rather put their humanitarian foot forward in support of the Al Qaeda connected IHH rather than cough up real humanitarian aid. Private sector NGO's in Turkey have added another $340,000 to the pot - thus making the Turks the Middle East's equivalent of Ebinezer Scrooge.

USAID, on the other hand, channels virtually all its cash through UNRWA, the organization specifically set up to support Arab refugees following the unsuccessful attempt to destroy the newly established state of Israel in 1948. No other refugee group in the world has a U.N. agency devoted to their plight - not Rwandans, Tamils or Congolese. In Gaza, 99% of UNRWA's employees are Hamas members or supporters, effectively placing a UN agency under their control. Unlike the infrastructure disbursements in the West Bank, there are no U.S. officials in Gaza overseeing payouts.

An alarming example of this lack of oversight involves Gaza media. In a rare public condemnation of Palestinian official anti-Israel and antisemitic propaganda (no doubt partially paid for with American dollars), Hillary Clinton outlined the problem:

According to Executive Order 13224, signed by President Bush in 2001, which continues to this day, foreign charities and humanitarian organizations must be vetted in order to ensure that funds or in- kind aid not go to individuals or groups that espouse or practice terrorism:

UNRWA's ties to terrorism have been widely documented by CAMERA.

In other words, no money for HAMAS since it has been officially designated a "terrorist" group by the State Department. The fiction, however, is maintained through the UNRWA conduit.

Not only has USAID turned mostly a blind eye with regard to enforcing EO 13224 (Larry Garber, former director, admitted his lax enforcement of the policy. Mr. Garber then moved on to direct The New Israel Fund), but has even ignored the continual corruption and outright theft of USAID funds.

With an Obama administration openly hostile to Israel and wishing to curry favor with the Arab and Muslim world, what kind of due diligence will be applied to the hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars that find their way to the vaults of Gaza?

[Crossposted from JStreetJive.]