You have been funding Hamas to train child soldiers

Did you know that, for years, Hamas has been running summer camps to train tens of thousands of children aged 10 to 17 to hate, fight, and kill Israelis?

Did you also know that, through Western governments’ financial support of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), your tax dollars have been helping fund these camps that graduate child soldiers to fight for Hamas? In fact, 58% of UNRWA’s budget is dedicated to “education,” a significant portion of which is spent indoctrinating a new generation for war.

To learn about this severe child abuse that has been going on in the Middle East for at least a decade, we have invited Middle East expert Joseph Ben-Ami back to the show. Joseph works with The Nahum Bedein Center for Near East Policy Research, a non-partisan, not-for-profit institution dedicated to the research, analysis, and publication of government and NGO policies and practices that impact Israel-Arab relations and the Jewish community worldwide. Joseph is also a former Director of Government Relations and Diplomatic Affairs for the Jewish advocacy group B’nai Brith.

In the second part of today’s show, Joseph and Tom discuss President Donald Trump’s Gaza ceasefire deal and consider whether it will hold if, as seems likely, Hamas ultimately refuses to disarm and end their role in Gaza’s government. After all, in their response to Trump’s plan, Hamas framed their acceptance of the ceasefire as a tactical step, not a strategic shift.

So, will they just use the pause in the fighting to regroup, rearm, and fortify positions, as they have done so often in the past when peace was supposedly at hand?

Join Joseph and Tom today for this important episode!

References relevant to this show:

The Nahum Bedein Center for Near East Policy Research

“Jewish History Is Key To Understanding the Israeli-Hamas War,” referenced in this episode as important to hear, Nov 27, 2023, America Out Loud News interview with Joseph Ben-Ami.

“Training for terror: How Hamas recruits and trains its child army,” Nahum Bedein Center video recommended in this episode (screen capture above from this documentary)

“IDF proof: Hamas, PIJ use young children for Gaza terror activities, incitement,” Jan 3, 2024, The Jerusalem Post

“The Age of Amnesia,” an important article by Abe Greenwald, appears as the second piece here.

“We should put ourselves in Israelis’ shoes,” by Gwyn Morgan, Oct 10, 2025, Financial Post, Toronto, Canada.

Below is a list of the top 20 funders of UNWRA in 2024 (USA highlighted in blue and Canada highlighted in orange). Note that in March 2024, the US Congress passed a law halting all US funding to UNRWA through March 2025. The $70 million+ figure in the table below reflects disbursements made in 2024 before the March 2024 cutoff. In February 2025, President Trump signed an executive order that permanently halted US financial support for UNRWA, which had previously received $300–400 million annually from the US, making it by far the agency’s largest donor. Table courtesy of The Nahum Bedein Center for Near East Policy Research.

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Image: Nahum Bedein Center for Near East Policy Research