|
Trending Topics
|
Taylor Force Act a Turning Point in U.S. Stance on PA Terror Payments
(Algemeiner) Ben Cohen and Dovid Efune - As the U.S. Senate prepared for a final vote to approve the Taylor Force Act that sanctions the Palestinian Authority for financially incentivizing terrorism, Sander Gerber, the leading private advocate of the legislation, said the measure carried a political and moral significance far beyond its financial impact. "The biggest impact lies in the requirements on the State Department and the U.S. representative at the UN to make known and report upon the Palestinian "pay-for-slay" infrastructure," Gerber said. He stressed that Congress had grasped that the PA was "incentivizing terror." The legislation would focus attention on "removing an incentive structure that is consuming more than 7% percent of the Palestinians' national budget." Of the $200 million of U.S. aid that "directly benefits" the PA, $125 million will be cut once the legislation is passed. Exemptions were made for aid to Palestinian wastewater projects, the East Jerusalem Hospital Network, and for a children's vaccination program. However, Gerber said, "it's not going to change the PA's practice of paying terrorists. This is something that is embedded within their societal structure."