American officials are visiting Saudi Arabia to discuss Palestinian demands regarding a potential deal for the kingdom to normalize relations with Israel. The deal could include Riyadh’s reported proposal to resume its financial payments to the Palestinian Authority (PA) if it constrains militants. While Saudi Arabia desires any normalization deal to benefit the Palestinian people, it is financially and morally irresponsible to distribute funds through the corrupt, terrorist-funding PA.
Instead of funneling aid through the PA as part of any normalization agreement, the creation of a new nongovernmental organization would enable the Saudis to support fellow Muslims, develop a responsible organization to tangibly improve Palestinian lives, foster a civil society more amenable to Arab-Israeli normalization outside of the PA’s repression and create a much-needed alternative to the PA’s endemic misgovernance.
Building on the groundbreaking Abraham Accords that one of us helped negotiate during the Trump administration, Saudi normalization with Israel would demonstrate to the world that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is a historic figure focused on transforming his society and advancing global peace, as well as provide him an opportunity to chart a better course for Palestinians. Any deal between Saudi Arabia and Israel would mark a massive advancement of the Abraham Accords, creating the political cover for additional Muslim leaders to formalize relations with Israel.
A notable holdout to the goodwill of Saudi-Israel peace could be Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who was elected to a four-year term in 2005 yet still remains in office. Abbas has repeatedly refused or stalled U.S. and Israeli diplomatic proposals.
Yet providing funds to the Palestinian Authority, an organization that continues to reward Palestinian terrorism, would undercut the peaceful message and implications of normalization. Having recognized that the PA’s payments to the families of terrorists encourages violence, Congress passed the Taylor Force Act in 2018, which cuts U.S. funding to the PA until its stops this “pay for slay” program. Since money is fungible, any foreign aid to the PA would effectively incentivize further terror against Israelis. Riyadh should not provide funds to the PA that would exempt the PA from ending its “pay for slay.”
Moreover, and despite the international community having propped up the PA for the past 30 years as the representative of the Palestinian people, the corrupt organization remains a failure that services its leadership with luxuries, like the purchase of a $50 million jet for Abbas in 2018, amid funding cuts.
Considering the strong diplomatic, economic and security relationships that have developed through the Abraham Accords, it is the PA’s intransigence, repression and cronyism that holds back an even deeper and wider peace between Israel and the Arab and Muslim worlds.
Simultaneously, Saudi Arabia has been signaling to its neighbors that it is attaching conditions to its bountiful foreign aid, which has long provided vital financial support to troubled economies throughout the Middle East. Riyadh has sent over $5 billion to Palestinian causes, but, recognizing the PA’s rampant corruption, began decreasing its aid in 2016 and cut it off entirely in 2021. “We used to give direct grants and deposits without strings attached and we are changing that,” Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed Al-Jadaan said in January. “We are working with multilateral institutions to actually say we need to see reforms.”
Having sent billions of dollars in aid to Middle Eastern nations like Egypt and Jordan, Saudi Arabia under MBS’s leadership is increasingly insisting on economic reforms in these countries to ensure better returns on Saudi investment and help bolster key linchpins of regional stability.
The international community should adopt a parallel approach to Palestinian aid. It is past time to stop funding Palestinian aid through an organization like the Palestinian Authority that has no intention of yielding a return on that investment, and whose corruption and misgovernance works directly at cross-purposes with shared U.S., Israeli and Saudi goals of promoting peace, prosperity and stability.
Instead, the United States and Saudi Arabia should create a responsible mechanism for helping the Palestinians — not furthering PA corruption and support for terrorism. Establishing a new aid organization would enable the United States to provide assistance to the Palestinian people without violating the Taylor Force Act. Removing the PA from the aid equation would better ensure that aid reaches the Palestinian people and not PA coffers or as a subsidy for terrorist attacks against Israelis.
As part of the normalization process between Saudi Arabia and Israel, U.S. and Saudi officials should establish a Saudi-led international aid organization that would be independent of the PA’s cronyism and of the United Nations, which has hindered Palestinian progress. A new “Future Investment Fund for the Palestinian People” would not only establish an alternative mechanism for providing the Palestinians with financial support, but also create a political power base that is independent of PA malfeasance and misgovernance.
Normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel provides an opportunity not only to reshape the geopolitical landscape of the Middle East but also to move past the outmoded Palestinian Authority, which has long been an obstacle to peace. In doing so, Saudi-Israel relations would pave the road to the long-sought peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
Mike Pompeo is a former U.S. secretary of state. Sander Gerber is the chief executive of Hudson Bay Capital Management, a distinguished fellow at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA) and a member of the State Department’s Middle East Partnership for Peace Act (MEPPA) advisory board.