the Middle East Monitor in April 2012, Karen Koning AbuZayd, a former Commissioner-General of the UNRWA (2005–2009), argued that "UNRWA needs support not brickbats". She concluded that: ... even those who scrutinise [UNRWA] most closely and challenge it most severely are those who also ensure that its programmes receive adequate funding. They, like others who view the agency more positively, realise that UNRWA makes a major contribution to stability in the Middle East. Writing in the Times of Israel on 31 July 2014, David Horovits likewise observed that although Israel has many complaints against UNRWA, it is broadly supportive of the organization not interested in abolishing it. During the article's publication, the 2014 Gaza conflict had resulted in 225,000 displaced persons within Gaza, the vast majority of whom relied on UNRWA for immediate support. Horovitsalso noted that Israel acknowledges UNRWA's close monitoring by Hamas for any alleged pro-Israel bias. 2004 investigation by the United States Congress The United States government financed a programme of "Operations Support Officers", part of whose job was to make random and unannounced inspections of UNRWA facilities to ensure their sanctity from militant operations. In 2004 the U.S. Congress asked the General Accounting Office to investigate media claims that government funding given to UNRWA had been used to support individuals involved in militant activities. During its investigation, the GAO discovered several irregularities in its processing and employment history. James G. Lindsay On the basis of his 2009 analyses for WINEP, referred to in previous sections, former UNRWA general-counsel James G. Lindsay and fellow researcher for Washington Institute for Near East Policy made the following suggestions for improvement: UNRWA should make the following operational changes: halt its one-sided political statements and limit itself to comments on humanitarian issues; take additional steps to ensure the agency is not employing or providing benefits to terrorists and criminals; and allow the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), or some other neutral entity, to provide balanced and discrimination-free textbooks for UNRWA schools. Andrew Whitley, director of the UNRWA representative office at UN headquarters in New York, said: "The agency is disappointed by the findings of the study, found it to be tendentious and partial, and regrets in particular the narrow range of sources used". UNRWA's Jerusalem spokesone Chris Gunness stated that UNRWA rejects Lindsay's report and its findings and claimed that the study was inaccurate and misleading, since it "makes