The State Department announced on Thursday that the United States would be withdrawing from the U.N. agency UNESCO.

The U.S. agency cited financial reasons, the need for reform and the body’s “continuing anti-Israel bias.” President Trump’s decision to leave UNESCO – the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization – as of December 31, 2018, was an appropriate foreign policy decision that will hopefully prompt a much-needed rethink of the United Nations, its purpose and practices. It will also send a strong message to the Palestinians that statehood cannot be achieved on the basis of U.N. resolutions alone, and that the only way forward is to engage in direct negotiations with Israel, during which mutual sacrifices will be required.