Biden Administration Continues to Violate the Taylor Force Act

BY HUGH FITZGERALD

SEE: https://robertspencer.org/2022/05/biden-administration-continues-to-violate-the-taylor-force-act;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

The Bidenites have ignored the Taylor Force Act ever since they took over in Washington. That is the act, passed overwhelmingly by Congress in 2018, that prohibits the American government from giving aid to the PA as long as its “Pay-For-Slay” program is in operation. That “Pay-For-Slay” program provides generous subsidies to imprisoned terrorists for their lifetimes, and also to the families of terrorists who were killed while committing their attacks. 

Even though “Pay-for-Slay” remains in place, and Mahmoud Abbas has defiantly proclaimed that he will continue to fund the program “even with my last penny, ”the Bidenites have sent hundreds of millions of dollars in economic aid to the PA. A report on this continuing scandal is here: “How the Palestinians Pay Terrorists as Biden Pumps Millions of Aid Dollars Into Their Government,” by Adam Kredo, Washington Free Beacon, May 16, 2022:

The Palestinian Authority allocates hundreds of millions of dollars to terrorists and their families even as the Biden administration pumps U.S. taxpayer funds into the Palestinian government, according to a non-public State Department report issued to Congress and obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

The report, published on May 10, details how the Palestinian government runs afoul of a U.S. law that bars it from receiving American aid dollars until these terror payments, known as the “pay-to-slay program,” are stopped. The PA in 2019, the most recent reporting period available, allocated over $150 million to convicted terrorists. Another $191 million was paid to the families of terrorists who were “martyred” while conducting attacks against Israelis and Americans. There is no sign these payments will end, with Palestinian leaders voicing support on the international stage for the program.

The PA has not terminated payments for acts of terrorism against Israeli and U.S. citizens to any individual, after being fairly tried, who has been imprisoned for such acts of terrorism and to any individual who died committing such acts of terrorism, including to a family member of such individuals,” the State Department concluded. The PA makes these payments in cash as part of an effort to obfuscate its actions and stop the international community from holding it accountable for awarding terrorists and their families, according to the State Department’s findings.

The report comes as the Biden administration pushes to increase U.S. aid dollars to the PA, which were terminated during the Trump administration as a result of the “pay-to-slay” program. More than $360 million in U.S. funding was given to the PA in 2021, potentially in violation of a bipartisan law known as the Taylor Force Act, which prohibits the American government from giving the Palestinians aid as long as they pay terrorists. The Biden administration maintains that the aid programs do not violate the law, though it is unclear what safeguards have been put on the funding to ensure it is not used to pay terrorists and their families. The State Department confirmed that no “economic support funds” were withheld as a result of restrictions in the Taylor Force Act.

Unembarrassed to be violating the Taylor Force Act, the Bidenites now have the chutzpah to ask for even more money for the PA. The Bidenites say the aid it gives the PA does not violate the law, but even if every dollar sent by the Americans is allocated for schools or hospitals, that merely frees up other money that was to be spent on those schools and hospitals, but now will be spent on those imprisoned terrorists and families of dead terrorists. There is no way to give the PA money without helping it fund its “Pay-For-Slay” program. 

The Biden administration is strongly opposed to the prisoner payment system and has consistently engaged the Palestinian Authority to end this practice,” a State Department spokesman told the Free Beacon. The U.S. Agency for International Development’s “assistance in the West Bank and Gaza is implemented consistent with U.S. law.”

The Bidenites can try to appeal to Mahmoud Abbas to end the “Pay-For-Slay” program all they want, and can express just how “strongly opposed” they are to the program, but none of that has any effect on the Palestinians. The only thing that will work is exactly what the Taylor Force Act does: cutting off all American aid to the PA as long as “Pay-For-Slay” continues. There is no other way.

The Bidenites, whatever their claims about “Pay-For-Slay,” are just as determined not to cut off their aid to the PA as the PA is to keep “Pay-For-Slay” going. What is it that makes the Bidenites so eager to give hundreds of millions of dollars each year to the corrupt regime in Ramallah that has been praising the rioters on the Temple Mount, and the recent spate of killings of 19 Israelis, the regime that threatens to “cut off” all ties to Israel because the Jewish state dares to fight back against those who would do it harm?

No, the USAID is dead wrong when it claims that “assistance in the West Bank and Gaza is implemented consistent with U.S. law.” The Bidenites have been ignoring the Taylor Force Act, simply stating with maddening chutzpah that the aid they give the PA is “consistent with U.S. law.” No, it isn’t, and their claim, without even an attempt to justify it — as if none were needed — is infuriating. This is the Bidenites’ way: we say it is so, so it must be so. Ipse dixit. If they keep repeating this falsehood, they’re hoping it will be accepted. Certainly, the “progressive” Democrats who are delighted to keep funding the PA will raise no objections.

Let’s be clear: the Taylor Force Act says that the American government must not give aid to the PA as long as it continues to support its “Pay-For-Slay” program. The law is unambiguous. The Biden Administration suggests that the money it gives to the PA is not money that is spent by it to support the “Pay-For-Slay” program. But this is nonsense. Money is fungible. If the Americans gave the PA $360 million dollars in 2021, even if they were to specify that it must be used “for humanitarian aid,” that simply freed up $360 million from elsewhere in the PA’s budget, which is spent on “Pay-For-Slay.”

Republicans in Congress disagree with the Bidenites’ assessment. 

Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas), for example, says the Biden administration cannot guarantee that the PA is not using U.S. funds as part of its terror financing program. Since the PA moved to a cash system, it is even harder to track which tranches of money are being used to fund “pay to slay.”

Of course, the Bidenites cannot guarantee where the money they send to the PA is spent.

“The Biden administration is ideologically committed to elevating the Palestinian government and pouring money into Palestinian territories,” Cruz told the Free Beacon. “They’ve been doing this while they clearly knew that the same Palestinian government was inciting terrorism and using fungible money to reward terrorism against Israelis and Americans. It’s disgraceful and unacceptable.”…

“Disgraceful and unacceptable.” Of course. But when has that ever stopped the Bidenites?