Our existence as direct recipients of Palestinian bullets, bombs, knives, and Molotov cocktails is extremely inconvenient for Foggy Bottom and DoJ. We quite unintentionally give the lie to the idea that the Palestinians want peace; more than half of the attacks of the Second Intifida, where over ten dozen Americans were killed and injured, were perpetrated by Fatah and its alphabet soup of offshoots: Force 17, Al-Aksa Brigades, Tanzim, and more.
By recognizing us and by helping us, the U.S. would ultimately have to admit that the “moderate” wing of the Palestinian people is not so moderate after all. The price for such an admission is too high, and we are left high and dry by the State Department and the Department of Justice, where even a terrorist admitting her role in the murder of several U.S. citizens does not merit an extradition request. The most recent example of U.S. anti-victim behavior was the attempt by John Kerry to have the Supreme Court help the Arab Bank, currently being sued by dozens of American families for its suggested financial role in aiding Palestinian terror organizations (see here).
“U.S. citizens second” has implications within and outside the US proper. U.S. soldiers often cannot expect air or artillery support during firefights in Afghanistan, should an errant bomb kill innocent civilians. A terror victim here cannot expect DoJ to file an indictment, possibly angering the Palestinian street at the thought that one of its heroes might be taken to the U.S. for prosecution. American citizens and legal immigrants soon stand to be run over by giving millions of illegal immigrants legal rights and expedited pathways to citizenship. Fundamental tasks of any government include protection of its citizens and promotion of its interest.
The U.S. has abandoned its citizens injured in and around Israel for the politically correct practice of helping the Palestinians realize a state of their own. American interests in peace in the Middle East demand leveling with the Palestinians: if you want us to help you realize a state, you will have to completely give up violence as a means. The U.S. may condemn Palestinian violence, but they don’t see it as improper: John Kerry’s knee-jerk response to the possible collapse of his talks was “a third Intifada.”
I have given up expecting that the U.S. will ever prosecute anyone involved in putting screws into our boy’s head and into my own left arm. DoJ’s only regret in our case is that I am still around to nag them incessantly.
In the present kidnapping, the willful failure of the U.S. to identify one of the kidnapped teens as an American citizen has enormous implications. While the U.S. has stated its willingness to help Israel in the present search, had the U.S. made clear that it will not tolerate the shameless kidnapping of one of its younger citizens and that those involved will be sought out and punished like Bin Laden, those boys might already be free.
Even Hamas has stated that it wants continued good relations between the United States and the Palestinian Authority in its ersatz “unity government.” The weight of the U.S. thrown clearly in the boys’ corner would add pressure—financial, political, military—on Abbas to get this business over with quickly and successfully. But the U.S. does not see a Jew who comes to Israel any longer as one of its citizens, birth and travel documents as well as U.S. voting rights to the contrary be damned.
It is our hope and prayer that the three boys come home quickly and safely. And it is our wish that the U.S. wake up from its self-inflicted dream to realize that Palestinian terror is not a fringe phenomenon but rather an integral part of a Palestinian calculus on how best to move their interests forward, even at the expense of Israel and “peace.”