Hawkish Democrat Quietly Seeking To Extend U.S. Ban On U.N. Aid To Palestinians [Video]

One of the most aggressively pro-Israel Democrats in Congress is quietly trying to extend a yearlong ban on U.S. funding for the United Nations agency helping Palestinians ― circulating a message telling fellow members of Congress that they “have a shared responsibility to ensure that U.S. humanitarian assistance is used to foster an open and safe society and not propagate terrorism and further division.”

The previously unreportedgambit that hawkish Rep. Josh Gottheimer (N.J.) launched on Tuesday underscores how determined some hard-line Israel advocates remain to force a permanentshift in U.S. policy. Washington has historically been the biggest donor to the agency, the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), and for the next 11 months at least, there is no prospect of American funds going to UNRWA because of the prohibition that legislators passed in a government spending bill last month after Israel in …