United Nations officials say they're shocked - shocked! - to learn that the headmaster at one of their top prep schools in Gaza was also the chief rocket-maker for Islamic Jihad. Thankfully, Awad al-Qiq, for the past eight years a science teacher at schools run by the UN's Relief and Works Agency, won't be assembling any more weapons: An Israeli airstrike last week took out his bomb-making operation - plus him. Now the UN agency, which Israel has long accused of complicity with terrorists, must explain how it let a high-ranking terrorist take charge of its Rafah Prep Boys School. He was guilty, of course: Islamic Jihad actually ID'd him as "chief leader of the engineering [i.e., bomb-making] unit." His home was bedecked with Islamic Jihad posters - and an Islamic Jihad flag was draped over his body at his funeral. Indeed, Islamic Jihad gave him the ultimate sendoff tribute: firing a barrage of his rockets into Israel in mourning. So much for UNRWA's self-proclaimed "zero-tolerance policy toward politics and militant activities."
Of course, that policy was pretty well shown up as a joke when a UNRWA teacher named Saeed Seyam was named interior minister of the Hamas-led government in Gaza and immediately vowed never to arrest any Palestinian for "resisting the occupation." According to Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), UNRWA confirmed last December that families of suicide bombers have received money from the agency. The United States, incidentally, pays 30 percent to 40 percent of UNRWA's budget - $505 million last year alone.
For years, Congress has tried to ax US funding for UNRWA, with little success. It's time to try again.