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It's Time for the U.S. to Stop Paying for Palestinian Terrorism

(Tablet) Sander Gerber and Noah Pollak - The Palestinian Authority is using Western aid money to pay salaries and benefits to terrorists and their families, including terrorists who have killed Americans. Congress, through the Taylor Force Act, is attempting to address this problem. The Taylor Force Act would condition one stream of U.S. aid to the PA on the cessation of its terrorist payment program. This stream of aid - the Economic Support Fund (ESF) - averages around $250 million per year. Two other streams of aid - $400 million to UNRWA and $70 million for security assistance - are untouched by the bill. Starting in fiscal year 2015, the U.S. began reducing, dollar for dollar, ESF aid to the PA based on the PA's spending to support terrorists, but the amount is classified, apparently to help the PA save face. Yet the PA payment program has grown as terrorists who carried out stabbing and car-ramming attacks during the 2015-2016 upsurge in violence, plus their families, have been added to the rolls. U.S. aid policy has at best insulated Palestinians from the consequences of their political choices, and at worst has rewarded them for hate, violence, and rejectionism. The Taylor Force Act intentionally poses a simple choice to the PA: Work toward peace, or continue promoting terror. The PA laws specifying payments and benefits for terrorism must be repealed, and the ministries that administer the program must be dismantled. The U.S. cannot provide unchecked aid to an entity that is rewarding the murderers of our citizens with cash payments and celebrating them with street parades. Sander Gerber is a fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and former vice chairman of the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars. Noah Pollak is a political consultant active on the Taylor Force Act.
2017-07-12 00:00:00
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