Dramatic shifts are rare in American foreign policy. One undeniable example is the Trump administration’s decision last week to cease funding the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, the main U.N. agency giving aid to Palestinians. At once a nearly 70-year-old Gordian knot has been cut, but what comes next?

From Unrwa’s 1949 founding on, each U.S. administration had ignored the agency’s central role in prolonging the Arab-Israeli conflict. As we pointed out in our 2013 book, “Religion, Politics and the Origins of Palestine Refugee Relief,” the U.S. has aimed since the early 1950s to stabilize Palestinian society through the delivery of aid, providing more than a quarter of Unrwa’s funding. But the effect has been to foster Palestinian dependence on foreign support. As the current administration recognizes, Palestinian elites continue to demand aid even as they fulminate against the U.S. in every way.

The decision to cut Unrwa’s funding corresponds with the Trump administration’s broader perspective on foreign policy. Like trade policy, the U.N. and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, President Trump insists that foreign aid must benefit the U.S. in a more substantial way than merely sustaining stability. Unrwa does not, and has not. It retards the development of Palestinian civil institutions and affirms several of the Palestinians’ self-defeating grievances.

The so-called right of return for Palestinian refugees, which Unrwa promulgates through its educational and policy organs, bolsters a sense of disenfranchisement among Palestinians throughout the world. Unrwa’s definition of “refugees” to include millions who never set foot in British Mandate-era Palestine runs counter to international law and practice. And in the long run, the agency’s assumption of duties that ought to belong to the Palestinian people might slow the emergence of a two-state solution to the standoff with Israel.

The Palestinian Authority must now overcome its shock and rage and recognize reality. Reports that they are betting on Democrats’ winning control of Congress in November indicate they are betting on the past. Even if the Democrats win, they will be unlikely to build enough support to sustain funding over the president’s veto.