In anticipation of President Obama’s visit to the region, Bauer and other American victims of Arab Palestinian terror sent a letter to Thomas Goldberger of the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv.
They asked that the State Department pass on to those in charge of Obama’s visit a simple, three-point message: (1) utilize the American anti-terrorism laws to prosecute terrorists who have wounded and killed Americans, (2) make it clear to the Palestinian Authority that any American financial aid will be cut off if the PA is found to be complicit in acts of terrorism that harm American citizens, and (3) insist that no more Arab Palestinian terrorists with American blood on their hands be released by Israel.
The answer to this message, like the earlier one in which Bauer asked that he and other American victims of terror be granted an audience with President Obama, has been silence.
Bauer points out that the acting leader of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, publicly stated that his number one goal for Obama’s visit is to “demand” that still more Arab Palestinian convicts be released from jail. “The issue of the prisoners will be the No. 1 issue during the talks with President Obama,” Khaled abu Toameh reported on March 12. Blocking more housing for Jews was the second priority.
According to news reports, President Obama reminded Arab American leaders, when he met with them prior to his trip to the Middle East, that he is committed to the creation of “the State of Palestine as the homeland for the Palestinian People.”
Bauer and other American victims of Arab terrorism hope that Obama is just as committed to justice for them as he repeatedly says he is to the creation of another Arab state. But so far, the Ethiopian Israeli beauty queen, Yityish Aynaw, has been the recipient of more attention from the president’s advance team than have American Israeli victims of terror.