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Editorial

Western Funds Help Pay Palestinian Terrorists

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alestinian terrorists freed
from Israeli prisons in a ges-
ture of diplomacy by Israel
to help regenerate the staggered
peace process draw significant pay-
outs and monthly stipends from the
Palestinian Authority. The P.A. governs
Palestinian-controlled areas of the
West Bank.
Western aid helps seed this virtual
"Terror Bank."
How galling is that?
Once freed, each prisoner is award-
ed a $50,000 payment and granted
a monthly salary. These prisoners
were convicted of murdering Israelis,
elevating them to "martyr" status,
something esteemed in Palestinian
society.
Over the past nine months of U.S.-
brokered Israeli-Palestinian talks,
effectively an exercise in futility, 78
Palestinians convicted of a role in ter-
rorist attacks against Israelis before
the 1993 Oslo Accords have been let
go. Israel refused to let go 26 more by
a March 29 deadline.
A Palestinian official told Israel
Radio the payouts and stipends are
intended to help these former prison-
ers rejoin society.
Clearly, within the P.A., murder does
pay.

Palestinians, who are among the larg-
est per-capita recipients of interna-
tional foreign aid, according to Jewish
Virtual Library.
Certainly, a chunk of that foreign
aid is paying it forward for the terror-
ists newly released from Israeli cus-
tody. And that's revolting.
On a larger scale, the P.A., which
became empowered by the Oslo
Accords but now only governing in the
West Bank since Hamas ousted it from
the Gaza Strip in 2007, considers all
terrorists imprisoned in Israel as P.A.
government "employees."
In his 2013 book Financing the

American Backing
Since 2008, annual U.S. bilateral
assistance to the P.A.-led West Bank
and Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip has
averaged $600 million. Since limited
Palestinian self-rule began in the
West Bank and Gaza Strip in the mid-
1990s, the U.S. government has sent
$4 billion in bilateral assistance to the

So explains why today, April 17, marks
Prisoners Day, an annual P.A. obser-
vance.
The prisoner payouts and stipends
amount to millions of dollars each
month. They represent the highest
levels of personal compensation and
family benefits awarded anywhere
within the Palestinian territories.

Flames: How Tax Exempt and Public
Money Fuel a Culture of Confrontation
and Terror in Israel, investiga-
tive journalist Edwin Black writes:
"Palestinians who have perpetrated
crimes of terror against Israeli civil-
ians or infrastructure receive monthly
payments officially and openly allo-
cated by the RA."
His sobering account, excerpted in
the spring issue of Reform Judaism
magazine, drives home that terror-
ism "has become a salient industry
in the Palestinian economy" and how
convicted terrorists "are cherished as
heroes in Palestinian society."

Holiday Of Hatred

"Salaries to prisoners follow a slid-
ing scale based on 'quality' — the more
heinous the act of terrorism, and the
longer the Israeli prison sentence, the
higher the salary," Black writes.
Jewish Virtual Library asserts that
successive U.S. administrations have
sought Palestinian aid to support at
least three policy priorities:
• Combating, neutralizing and avert-
ing terrorism against Israel by Hamas
and other terrorist organizations;
• Creating a virtuous cycle of stabil-
ity and prosperity in the West Bank
that inclines Palestinians, including
Hamas followers, toward a peaceful
coexistence with Israel and prepares
them for self-governance;
• Meeting Middle East humanitar-
ian needs and preventing further
destabilization, especially in the Gaza
Strip.

Coming To Grips
A reality check reveals that Hamas
isn't yet tired of propelling rockets at
population centers in southern Israel
and that Israeli checkpoints, patrols
and security dividers are doing more
to diminish West Bank-originated ter-
rorism against Israelis than anything
Ramallah has done. Let's remem-
ber that amid all the conversation
about how "moderate" P.A. President
Mahmoud Abbas is, his Fatah political
party's military wing, Al Aqsa Martyrs
Brigades, is a full-fledged terrorist
group.
Black provides this mind-numbing
overview: "In Palestinian society,
becoming a terrorist offers a good
wage sponsored by foreign-country
taxes, plus a nice pension, good family

"The more
heinous
the act of
terrorism,
and the
longer the Israeli
prison sentence, the
higher the salary."

- Edwin Black

benefits, local celebrity, and the seem-
ingly sure prospect of early release to
a local fireworks reception as soon as
politics make it 'your turn.'
"And the system works because of
ample outside funding from Western
governments, including our own."
Black's clarion call has induced
U.S. and European lawmakers to seek
government action to stop or curtail
aid to the P.A. until it no longer des-
ignates foreign funding "directly or
indirectly to compensate convicted
terrorists and their families."
As U.S. Secretary of State John
Kerry tries desperately to salvage
Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, he
should concurrently demand that the
P.A. shutter this practice of incite-
ment, inhumanity and utter insanity
out of fear of turning off the all-
important spigot of U.S. support. ❑

Guest Column

1-

A

_____

-.-7

s a family law attorney, I see
lots of families shift and change,
with former spouses ending up
alone for holidays post-divorce. It's not
always easy, and many express their wor-
ries to me during the divorce process: How

will I get through a holiday without my
kids? Where will Igo for seder? Will any-
body invite me?
In some cases, newly single adults
don't miss a beat, finding invitations and
places to go for the big holidays. They get
through it with ease, thanks to the support
of kind friends and open homes.
Not everyone is so lucky, though. While
we live in what we consider to be a tight,
supportive community, I have to say it's

MEI/

■111.111■

...Pm 'III.

not always like that, at least not
for everyone.
I grew up in Cleveland in a
similarly tight-knit Jewish com-
munity, where I knew every-
one, had family and had no
shortage of places to celebrate
simchahs and holidays. I moved
to Philadelphia after law school
and then came to Michigan
when I got engaged to the man
I spent more than two decades
with.
When you're young and single, you have
a community with college classmates. You
find friends at the local Hillel. Co-workers
invite you home for seder. When I lived in

Philadelphia, where my mother
was living at the time, I dove
into synagogue life, became a
United Synagogue Youth advis-
er and found myself in the thick
of community.

Always Home
Even now, Cleveland welcomes
me home with open arms. I still
have family and friends there
from childhood, and it's easy to
go back and sink into familiar
seats and scenes, always welcome, always
at home.
Detroit is like that. When I moved here,
I was amazed at how many people had

their longtime friends living nearby, cel-
ebrating family milestones and lifecycle
events together. It's hard to be an outsider.
Back then, so many decades ago, when
I interviewed for jobs, potential employers
asked me why I would stay. I didn't have
family ties or lifelong friends; what would
keep me here? Luckily, I landed a job at
the Jewish Federation and that became my
Jewish family in Detroit, along with my
early synagogue membership.
At some point along the way, though,
things changed. I'd attend services and sit
alone. People stayed in their circles, and
I was on the outside. And it became even
more glaring when I divorced. Even my
synagogue community has kept their dis-

Seder on page 35

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April 17 • 2014