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Congress Mulls Action Against PA in Light of UN Bid
(Ha'aretz) Natasha Mozgovaya - Congress is considering taking punitive measures against the Palestinian Authority or closing the PLO mission in Washington should it go ahead with plans to seek full membership at the UN Security Council. Elliott Abrams, senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and a former Bush administration official, said, "The entire Palestinian Authority is not to blame for what the PLO-Fatah crew is planning in New York. I think the collapse of the PA would not be in our interest or, for that matter, Israel's or Jordan's." Dr. Jonathan Schanzer, vice president of research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a former terrorism finance analyst at the U.S. Department of Treasury, said, "Congress should challenge the corrupt system created by Mahmoud Abbas. This includes, one, stricter oversight of the presidential waiver process that releases Palestinian funds each year, two, oversight of the Palestine Investment Fund (PIF) including a full audit, three, conducting an inquiry into the wealth of Mahmoud Abbas and his sons, Yaser and Tareq, to determine whether U.S. funds have contributed to their holdings, [and] four, demanding an immediate resolution to the matter of the electric power plant in Gaza - U.S. taxpayers should not be indirectly financing Hamas."