www.CBN.com: Gordon Robertson recently spoke with U.S. Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), the Chairman of the House Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare. He asked him about the use of U.S. taxpayer funds to support camps for Palestinians, a people who harbor a fierce hate for Americans, and who seem determined to wage a war against Israel and the U.S.

Gordon Robertson: Joining us now from Capitol Hill is Eric Cantor. He’s the Chairman of the House Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare. Congressman, welcome to The 700 Club.

Rep. Eric Cantor: Good morning, Gordon, it is good to be with you.

Robertson: Good to have you on. Well, the United States seems to be funding a third of the budget for this UN Refugee and Works Agency. Why are U.S. taxpayers supporting these kinds of armed camps that seem to hate us?

Cantor: Gordon, that is a great question, and something that I have been troubled by ever since coming to Washington a few years ago. But it is a fact that the U.S. taxpayers are funding the United Nations Refugee and Works Agency, which was an agency created shortly after the birth of modern Israel, to administer these camps in which Palestinian individuals live. There’s no question, these camps are a hot bed of anti-American and anti-Israel activity that the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) and Hamas leaders, the terrorist organizations that operate there, have one goal and that goal is to overtake Israel, and to return, as they say; that is their right. In fact, though, Gordon, there is nothing but, I think, subterfuge behind this. This is a way for them to wipe out Israel without — this right of return is a way for them to wipe out Israel without taking up arms, if they were able to succeed in accomplishing the world acceptance of that right of return. So it’s a very difficult situation, and here in Washington, what we are trying to do is to bring some accountability to the table to find out where these taxpayer dollars are actually going and where they’re being spent.

Robertson: Is part of the problem here just the nomenclature, what we’re calling these things? For me, if a refugee camp has been in existence for half a century, we might want to start calling it something other than a refugee camp. Because they’re no longer refugees. We are talking about generations that have lived there. Why do we seem to have this almost bubble around them to say, no integration into the culture around you?

Cantor: There is no question that a culture has bred in these camps. The Palestinians who administer the camps, the Hamas unions that administer these camps, as well as the neighboring Arab states, unfortunately are not looking out for the rights of these people. And these people are actually serving as pawns in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the Arab-Israeli conflict, and it is a real shame. And you’re right. The United Nations ought to take some action and here in the United States, we ought to demand accountability for our taxpayer dollars being spent in this way.

Robertson: What about just at a minimum disarming them, to say having weapons within these camps is prohibited? Why can’t we at least insist on that?

Cantor: Gordon, that makes a lot of common sense. I think that the United Nations would say, of course we don’t allow any arms or any type of terrorist activity to take place. But we see what happens when Israel goes into some of these camps in Judea and Samaria, and we see the arms and bombmaking facilities that are uncovered, and we also see the outcry of the rest of the world that Israel should not be going in to the so-called refugee camps. There is a matter of security for Israel, though, that we do take some action and allow Israel to secure itself against the terrorists that are operating inside these camps.

Robertson: And is there anything Congress can do? Can we lobby Congress for some kind of change here?

Cantor: I have been a sponsor of a bill which will deny any of the aid to UNRA until we get an accountability of the money being spent. It is extremely hard, unfortunately, to get the cooperation of the folks at UNRA to actually come forward with their plans to try and right the situation there. So absolutely, I would ask your viewers to call their members of Congress and their senators to see about getting active in legislation in this area, to force some accountability for our taxpayer dollars.

Robertson: What’s that bill number?

Cantor: That is a bill put in last session, Gordon, and we’re working on, having just come back in January, to put another bill in. We’ll get back to you on the bill number, to make sure that the callers can call their members.

Robertson: All right, congressman. Thanks for being with us. We’ll give you more updates, for you viewers, we’ll have it on our web site, as to what that bill will be and how you can get involved to stop funding of terrorism within these Palestinian camps. Interview aired on CBN on February 26th, 2004

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