The Next Bad Idea: A PLO Office in Washington

(Council on Foreign Relations) Elliott Abrams - One aspect of the reset in the U.S. relationship with the Palestinians appears to be a reopening of the PLO office in Washington, which was closed in 2018. The existence of that office always required a special waiver from the U.S. government because of PLO support for terrorism. That won't be easy because of the Taylor Force Act, which was signed into law in 2018. Named after an American soldier murdered by a Palestinian terrorist, the law states that the PA and PLO will be liable for damages awarded by a jury if they open offices in the U.S. or make payments to Palestinian terrorists being held in Israeli prisons. A State Department report said the Palestinians spent at least $151 million in 2019 on its "pay-to-slay" program, the Washington Free Beacon reported. How the administration plans to get around the Taylor Force Act, and why it believes it is sensible and moral to do so, remain unclear. The writer, a senior fellow at CFR, served as U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor and as U.S. Special Representative for Iran.


2021-03-29 00:00:00

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