views
essay
Pejorative Payouts
Peace impossible until Palestinian terrorist salaries end.
C
Taylor Force Act. The
act would limit funding
that directly benefits
the P.A. while keeping
humanitarian assis-
tance provided the P.A.
steps up fighting terror
within. The biparti-
san bill is named for a
Taylor Force
Vanderbilt University
graduate student, a 28-year-old former
U.S. Army officer, who was stabbed to
death in a 2016 terrorist attack while
studying in the old section of Tel Aviv.
The bill wouldn’t curtail the almost
$100 million a year the U.S. extends to
the P.A. in security support. It would
affect the $260 million a year the U.S.
awards the P.A. in non-security aid.
Let’s hope the bill’s final version isn’t
diluted to yielding no discernable rea-
son for the P.A to end terrorist payouts.
The Taylor Force Act would be a hollow
shell should it lack the political and
economic spine to force the P.A. into a
fundamental cultural upheaval.
all the Palestinian practice
gave the payout practice wide
of paying terrorists jailed
exposure in 2011. A few weeks
ago, PMW briefed Israel’s Foreign
by Israel and the families
Affairs and Defense Committee on
of “martyred” terrorists what it
how best to counter the practice.
truly is: blood money.
PMW has been represented at
It’s a practice with desperate
all three committee hearings. It
intentions. It must stop before
confirms that P.A. salaries can be
Palestinian leaders gain the
Robert Sklar
a driver for predisposed terrorists
legitimacy they crave.
and that restricted tax revenues
Payouts not only motivate ter- Contributing Editor
can drive down terrorist salaries.
rorists into murdering as well as
PMW also has found more foreign
maiming supporters of anything
governments demanding their P.A. alloca-
Zionist, but also are spent on weapons
tions cease subsidizing terror.
used later in terrorist attacks.
In 2017, the Palestinian Authority (P.A.),
whose Fatah faction governs much of the
HAUNTING NUMBERS
West Bank, budgeted 7 percent, a stagger- Jailed terrorists draw a salary of $401 a
ing $350 million, to pay upwards of 6,300
month, which grows based on jail time to
jailed terrorists as well as 26,800 families
$3,438 a month. Families of terrorist “mar-
of terrorists killed or injured as “martyrs”
tyrs” draw an upfront payment of $1,662,
for Allah.
then a lifetime stipend of $401 a month.
Imagine such funding going toward
The Israeli government’s proposal
social needs under a de facto government to oppose the payout practice shekel
HISTORICAL BACKDROP
wracked by political corruption and eco-
for shekel just might possess the eco-
Over the long haul, the U.S. govern-
nomic distress.
nomic muscle to succeed. Israel would
ment thus far hasn’t shown the political
Pending legislation in both Israel and
increase its return of P.A. tax revenues
will to decertify P.A. “efforts” against
the U.S. would slash hundreds of millions
at the same rate the P.A. diminished ter- Palestinian terror.
of dollars in P.A. aid until the abhorrent
rorist salaries.
In a thoughtful commentary
payouts stop. To carry clout, any new laws
Withholding all tax revenues
posted by the Jewish news
must not be compromised to the point
would further destabilize
service JNS on Dec. 4, New
they lack impact.
Ramallah and further enrage
Jersey attorney Stephen Flatow,
There’s no denying “martyrdom” in the
Palestinians. The approach
vice president of the Religious
“struggle against Zionism” can appeal to
under review encourages a
Zionists of America and father
young, vulnerable Palestinians. Personal
Palestinian change of heart —
of Alisa Flatow, murdered in an
glory and substantial payouts loom as a
greater tax revenues for ordi-
Iranian-sponsored Palestinian
social chip for fighting Israel’s so-called
nary Palestinians who seek a
terrorist attack in 1995, wrote:
“occupation of Palestinian land.”
better way of life. Israel collects
“We all know that for the past
Stephen Flatow
almost $200 million a month
24 years, the State Department
in taxes on the P.A.’s behalf and
UNDER STUDY
has repeatedly ‘certified’ that the P.A.
In Israel, the Knesset is discussing a bill to returns a slightly lower payment after
was keeping its obligation in the Oslo
deducting due debt, according to PMW.
hold back tax revenues transferred to the
Accords even though that certification
P.A. equal to what the P.A. pays out to ter-
was a total lie.
rorists directly and to families of terrorist
FORCEFUL EFFECT
“No matter how blatantly the P.A. vio-
“martyrs.”
The U.S. Congress, with White House
lated the accords, the State Department
Israel-based Palestinian Media Watch
backing in principle, is considering the
always found some excuse to declare
Contributing Writers:
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Chessler, Annabel Cohen, Don Cohen, Shari
S. Cohen, Shelli Liebman Dorfman, Adam
Finkel, Stacy Gittleman, Stacy Goldberg, Judy
Greenwald, Ronelle Grier, Esther Allweiss
Ingber, Allison Jacobs, Barbara Lewis, Jennifer
Lovy, Rabbi Jason Miller, Alan Muskovitz,
David Sachs, Karen Schwartz, Robin Schwartz,
Steve Stein, Joyce Wiswell
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it to be ‘in compliance’ so that U.S.
money would keep flowing. There is
every reason to believe that the State
Department will do so again.”
PRESSING QUEST
It’s unfathomable to think well-meaning
allocations to the P.A. for infrastructure,
hospitals, schools, security, food and
debt relief is being diverted to glorify
terror not only via terrorist payouts, but
also by inciting youths to commit vio-
lence against “the Zionist entity.”
Strengthening the chorus of nations
seeking that good-faith gifts of aid no
longer go toward terror-inspiring sala-
ries would be a good start.
Still needed is an alliance with inter-
national stature to take up this good
fight and denounce the payouts. An alli-
ance of, perhaps, the European Union,
the U.N. Security Council, friendly Arab
governments and other western and
Asian partners could work in lockstep
with U.S. and Israeli revenue cuts to
pressure the P.A. into reimagining what
it is on behalf of the Palestinian people.
Peace talks between Israel and the
Palestinians have broken off thanks in
part to P.A. President Mahmoud Abbas
rejecting any brokered inroad toward
rekindled direct, bilateral negotiating.
He clings to terrorist payouts despite
deepening international dissent.
Circumstances could be substantively
different if Palestinian leadership, at
least the P.A. if not Hamas, the terror-
ist organization ruling the Gaza Strip,
somehow found the inclination to rec-
ognize Israel as the Jewish state.
That would help set the stage for
moving away from terrorist payouts
and toward yet another try at solv-
ing the decades-old conflict between
the ancestral homeland of the Jewish
people and the Palestinians — in reality,
Sunni Arabs angling for real leadership
amid little hardcore support in the Arab
world for their lingering, terribly unfor-
tunate plight. •
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