Despite the D.C. trip and the meeting with President Trump, PLO boss Abbas is still following the same old policy of funding Islamic terrorism. This is a topic that the media won't discuss. Our media. The Palestinian Authority's press is happy to discuss it. As Palestinian Media Watch reports.
PA Chairman Abbas and numerous other Palestinian Authority leaders have rejected the demands of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US President Donald Trump, and many other governments and legislators to stop the payments of salaries to imprisoned terrorists.
Following the demand made by Israel and just before Abbas' meeting with Trump last week, Director of the PLO Commission of Prisoners' Affairs Issa Karake announced Abbas'"absolute refusal":
"The President [Abbas] emphasized his absolute refusal of the Israeli demands to stop the allowances of the families of the prisoners and Martyrs (Shahids), and emphasized his absolute support for them (i.e., for the payments).'" [Amad, independent Palestinian news website, April 29, 2017
The Palestinian Authority provides salaries to convicted terrorists and to the families of dead terrorists, including Hamas. A sizable portion of the PA budget, which is funded by foreign aid, a lot of it coming from us, goes to funding terrorism.
The PA has made it very clear that it will go on funding terrorism. Abbas shouldn't have been rewarded with a trip to meet with Trump until he committed to ending those payments. There should be no talk of further negotiations until the PA stops funding terrorism.
The Islamic terror funded by the Palestinian Authority and Abbas hasn't just killed Israelis or even just American Jews, but Americans who happened to be there when a terrorist struck.
Like Taylor Force.
Taylor Force had been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, he had served at Fort Hood in the year of the infamous Islamic terrorist attack on the base, but a Jihadist finally caught up to the veteran, whose father and grandfather had also served their country, in civilian life during a visit to Israel.
Bashar Masalha, the Islamic terrorist who murdered Force, was shot dead by Israeli police
Masalha came from Qalqilya which is under the civil control of the Palestinian Authority. Its mayor, Othman Dawood, is a member of Fatah, the core political organization behind the PLO and the Palestinian Authority. Fatah celebrated the murder of Taylor Force and other victims of the attack, praising Masalha as a “heroic martyr”. It named him and two other terrorist attackers as “the pride of all of the young Palestinians” and urged future terrorists to go on killing in their name.
Palestinian Authority television called the terrorist who murdered an American, a Shaheed, a martyr for Islam. And the Palestinian Authority’s support for the murder of Taylor Force doesn’t just end there.
The Palestinian Authority pays terrorists based on the amount of harm they caused and the resulting jail sentence. Had Masalha survived his attack on Taylor Force and the other victims, he would have likely been paid $2,000 a month for his act of terror. That’s pretty good money in a place where $2,000 is more like an annual income. It’s so good that that there’s no shortage of terrorists eager to kill for cash.
In just one year, the PA paid out $78 million to the families of terrorists. Masalha’s family will receive money each month for the murder of Taylor Force. That money will come from American taxpayers. It will come from you.
Americans are paying money to Islamic terrorists who kill them. They are paying money to their families so that the terrorists know that even if they die, their families will be taken care of by their victims.
Abbas' Palestinian Authority has been open in its support for the murder of Taylor Force.
Official PA TV reporter: "After delays by Israel in the transfer of his body, Martyr Bashar Masalha's family, from the village of Hajja, east of Qalqilya, received their son in the evening... The Martyr Bashar returned from Qalqilya to his village Hajja in a procession... His family, friends, and people of the region took it upon themselves to ensure that this [burial] would be a large national wedding (i.e., to the 72 Virgins in Paradise) befitting of Martyrs... The Martyr was accompanied to his last resting place in the cemetery for Martyrs in Hajja..."
Funeral participant: "Despite the delays by the Israeli side transferring the Martyr's body... the PA did everything it could and applied national and political pressure to the other side so they would transfer the Martyr's body. Despite what they (i.e., the Israelis) did, the Palestinian will prevailed and we received the Martyr's body..."
Official PA TV reporter: "Martyr Bashar Masalha, 22, ascended to Heaven in Jaffa on March 8 [2016] (i.e., he was shot after killing US tourist)... He returned and was embraced by the soil of his homeland as a Martyr."[Official PA TV News, May 21, 2016]
The question is are we going to put a stop to it?
The Taylor Force Act is trying to do just that. It would force the State Department to certify that the PA is no longer funding terrorism as a condition of getting more American money.
Funds appropriated or otherwise made available for assistance under chapter 4 of part II of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2346 et seq.; relating to Economic Support Fund) and available for assistance for the West Bank and Gaza may only be made available for such purpose if the Secretary of State certifies to the appropriate congressional committees that the Palestinian Authority— has terminated payments for acts of terrorism against United States and Israeli citizens to any individual who has been imprisoned after being fairly tried and convicted for such acts of terrorism and to any individual who died committing such acts of terrorism, including to a family member of such individuals.
The Taylor Force act was unveiled with Force's parents. And they've been active in fighting for an end to the Palestinian Authority's terror payments.
"I sat down on the putting green and tried to collect my thoughts. She went on to say that your cell phone was his emergency contact number, and I said thank you, and I said, have you called home to talk to my wife yet? She said no we haven't, I said please don't, give me 15 minutes and let me go home. I essentially threw the clubs on the ground and drove home."
"I said they had the wrong person, it's not Taylor," recalls Mrs. Force.
Since that harrowing moment, the Forces and Taylor's sister, Kristen, have embarked on a deeply meaningful mission in Taylor's memory. They are trying to ensure that the incentives to commit terrorism are removed so that there will be no more victims. An important step, they say, is for Congress to pass the Taylor Force Act.
"Our main mission is to spread the word about the legislation," Force says.
"The Taylor Force Act is a good thing. It is not a Democrat thing, it is not a Republican thing, it's not Conservative or Liberal. It is to get things going in the right direction, the way they should be.
"It is so important that the Taylor Force Act passes, so that other sons and daughters, brothers and sisters aren't lost in this way," he says. "It’s just a senseless loss."
After their son’s death, the couple started following news from the Middle East regularly; they dived into the controversial issue of Palestinian Authority support for families of terrorists.
“The more we learned about this system of payments to terrorists, the more we realized it’s just a terrible situation,” said Robbi Force. “When we heard that this was being addressed in the Senate, and we were asked if we could be a part of the effort to stop it, we immediately said yes.”“They interviewed the terrorists’ family on television after the attack,” Robbi Force recalled. “They said that they have no feeling of remorse. They showed no regret on the attack, on their son killing Taylor. That’s simply wrong.”
It's wrong. And we can end it. If we have the courage to fight for it and insist that Congress and the White House do the right thing and stop funding Islamic terror.
The Palestinian Authority has made it very clear that it will not stop funding terror. Unless it's made to stop. No talk of a peace process can even begin until the terrorism stops.