In recent testimony before Congress, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson surprisingly reported that the Palestinian leadership had committed to discontinuing the policy of making payments to imprisoned or killed terrorists and their families, as has been the practice for several years.
Mr. Tillerson had to walk back his comments when Palestinian officials denied this to be the case, characterizing the payments as direct and indirect support for martyrs and heroes who had sacrificed for the good of the Palestinian cause, although they conceded there might be a way to camouflage the payments to massage American sensibilities.
That this lesson in Palestinian credibility – or, more precisely, lack of same – will seriously inform future U.S. Mideast policy is perhaps too much to hope for. Yet it does highlight a dynamic taking place in Washington with regard to the general issue.
Taylor Force was a West Point graduate who served in Afghanistan and Iraq and who, while in Israel for postgraduate work in 2016, was stabbed to death by a young Palestinian. In the U.S., supporters of efforts to deny the PA aid used to fund payments to terrorists seized upon Mr. Force’s death to push for passage of legislation named after him – the Taylor Force Act.
The legislation as it now reads prohibits certain aid under the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 from being made available for the West Bank and Gaza unless the Department of State certifies that the Palestinian Authority is taking steps to end acts of violence against U.S. and Israeli citizens perpetrated by individuals under its jurisdiction and control; is publicly condemning such acts of violence and is investigating or cooperating in investigations of such acts; and has terminated payments for acts of terrorism against U.S. and Israeli citizens to any individual who has been convicted and imprisoned for such acts, to any individual who died committing such acts, and to family members of such an individual.
The legislation seems to be a no-brainer. In fact, the size of payments bestowed by the PA on families of terrorists actually reflects the number of victims and the severity of the injury inflicted.
Yet, dismayingly, there are reports that Prime Minister Netanyahu and AIPAC are balking at supporting the measure for fear that elimination of substantial funding and the resulting cut in support for terrorists’ families would cause PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s ouster from office.
The thinking is that for all his faults, Mr. Abbas cooperates with Israel on security issues and there is no one else on the Palestinian side who would be better for Israeli and American interests.
Frankly, we find no realistic basis for such reasoning, and now that the drive to enact the Taylor Force legislation is underway, opponents need to speak up and clear the air. The payments to families of terrorists only encourage more terrorism, and no amount of sophistry can explain away the tragedies these payments have underwritten and will continue to promote.