Paging Rex Tillerson.
This is a very deliberate show by the Palestinian Authority that not only won't it stop funding terrorists, but that it will actually fund them even more. It comes after multiple statements by the PA leadership making it clear that this will continue.
Let's flash back to Secretary of State Tillerson's claim to the Senate.
Rex Tillerson, America’s top diplomat, told the US Senate on Tuesday that the Palestinian Authority (PA) had agreed to stop the “martyr” payments, which even go to the families of suicide bombers and have been a major source of anger for Israel.
“They have changed their policy, at least I have been informed they’ve changed their policy,” Mr Tillerson said. “Their intent is to cease the payments of to the family members of those who have committed murder or violence against others.”
You know how long that held up.
“This is not true and this statement is an aggression against the Palestinian people,” said Issa Qaraqe, the head of the PA prisoners affairs department.
So much for that.
Mr Tillerson said on Tuesday that both he and Donald Trump had raised the issue with Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, when he visited Washington in May.
And for this.
Now the PA budget is out. And as Palestinian Media Watch notes, terror spending has actually increased. The premise in recent years from pro-solutionists was that we shouldn't pay attention to what the PA officials say, but to what they do.
Here's what they're doing.
The PA expenditure for salaries to terrorist prisoners has risen by a huge 13%, from 488 million shekels ($135 million) in 2016 to 550 million shekels ($158 million), and the expenditure for payments to families of "Martyrs" has gone up by 4% from 660 million shekels ($183 million) to 687 million shekels ($197 million). In 2017, the PA's total expenditure for directly funding terror is 1.237 billion shekels or $355 million.
The question is what are we going to do about it?
Will the US government meet this defiance by cracking down? Will the Senate pass an undiluted version of the Taylor Force Act which makes it clear that we'll stop funding the PA if it doesn't stop funding terror? Or will Tillerson come back in a few months and once again falsely claim that the terror funding has stopped.