Amine Ayoub
Jeruselam Post , Feb. 18, 2025
“While USAID has its flaws, it also serves as a counterbalance to hostile foreign influence.”
For years, critics of US foreign aid have pointed to instances where American taxpayer dollars have indirectly ended up in the hands of terrorist organizations. The well-documented cases of United States Agency for International Development funds being exploited by groups with extremist ties have fueled calls to dismantle the agency.
However, while these concerns are legitimate, an abrupt removal of USAID would create a dangerous vacuum – one that nations like Qatar, a known financier of terrorist groups, would eagerly fill. The result? More terror, not less.
There is no shortage of evidence that US foreign aid has, at times, been misused. USAID, despite its stated mission of promoting development and stability, has had funds siphoned off by terrorist-affiliated entities worldwide.
In Gaza, for example, millions of dollars meant for humanitarian relief have been funnelled into Hamas’s terror infrastructure. In 2016, it was revealed that Hamas had infiltrated a major humanitarian NGO, using millions in US aid money to build terror tunnels and fund weapons purchases.
Similar cases have emerged in Afghanistan, where billions of dollars in aid meant to rebuild the country were lost to corruption, with some funds making their way into the hands of the Taliban.
The transnational Salafi Jihadist group Al-Shabaab in Somalia has also repeatedly exploited international aid efforts, imposing “taxes” on aid convoys and using food shipments as leverage to control local populations….SOURCE