Thursday March 29, 2018

I've Been Thinking:

The Palestinian Authority is once again lashing out hoping to hurt the United States. But once again, in the end, the only party to be hurt - will be the Palestinian Authority. Their actions just reinforce the momentum in US halls of power that the Palestinians are not helping themselves.

For years the US has been frustrated that the PA continues to pay terrorists who are in Israeli prisons and to the families of terrorists killed while perpetrating murderous acts against Israelis. For four years the PA indirectly paid their terrorists through the Palestinian Ministry of Prison of Affairs, a ministry which deals only and exclusively with prisoners in Israeli jails and terrorists killed while perpetrating terror.

Now Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his government have decided to fund the terrorists and their families directly. The PA officially announced that they are no longer hiding their sponsorship of terrorists.

Why - and why now? Because last week the US Congress passed the Taylor Force Act which prohibits the United States from sending funds to the Palestinian Authority if they pay/ reward terrorists. US aid was being used to sponsor terror against Israelis and even against Americans like Taylor Force who was murdered last year. Force was a decorated US veteran on a graduate school study trip to Israel and was stabbed and murdered in a terror attack in the city of Jaffa.

The numbers and the sums are numbing. According to Palestinian budget figures, 550 million NIS is budgeted annually for stipends to Palestinians in Israeli prisons and another 687 million NIS for the families of terrorists. That equals 1.2 billion NIS to terrorists and families.

The entire health budget of the Palestinian Authority is 1.8 billion NIS.

The total PA budget is 15.5 billion NIS. The budget for terrorists and their families (not terrorism) is about 10% of the entire Palestinian budget and just a tiny bit smaller than the health budget for the entire PA.

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