Sander Gerber: Evidence of PA Financial Support for Terror
By Jerry Gordon and Rod Bryant (July 2018)
Terror Antiquus, Leon Bakst, 1908
murdered in a knifing attack by a Palestinian terrorist at a seaside restaurant in Jaffa, near Tel Aviv. Taylor’s wife was seriously injured as were others in the terrorist incident.
The Palestinian terrorist was shot and killed by an Israeli police officer.
interview with JCPA colleague, Dan Diker, that we considered the Center’s effort led by Gerber and Kuperwasser as exemplary “entrepeneurially-driven counterterrorism.”
He served as a member of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee board from 2004 to 2016. In 2005, Gerber represented the United States at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Conference on Anti- Semitism and other Intolerances in Cordoba, Spain. He was appointed by President Bush in 2006 as a Trustee of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington D.C. He served as Vice Chairman in that capacity from 2008 to 2016. For Gerber’s leadership on the research and advocacy for the Taylor Force Act he was awarded the Henry M. “Scoop” Jackson Distinguished Service Award by the Jewish Institute for National Security of America or JINSA in November, 2017.
There was skepticism from US newspapers of record about the findings of the JCPA team.
The stunning acknowledgment by Congress through the passage of the Taylor Force Act that the Palestinian Authority has laws in place and budgets allocated to paying terrorists and their families has changed the narrative regarding the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
This bloody truth has also finally been acknowledged by the mainstream media. Even The New York Times felt compelled to issue a correction that PA payments to terrorists are not “far-right conspiracy stories” because the PA admits as much.
However, Glenn Kessler in the Washington Post, and a recent Atlantic article by Neri Zilber, dispute whether the 2018 PA budget of $360 million for Prisoners and Martyrs in fact goes primarily to terrorists.
Zilber and Kessler postulate that prisoners include innocents that happen to be arrested, and attempt to inject definitional terms on what a terrorist is. Both claim that these payments are a social responsibility. At least Zilber concedes that the PA should differentiate “between payments . . . to prisoners with blood on their hands . . . and genuine political prisoners, orphans, and the like that Abbas speaks of.”
the PA’s annual budget</a>; the media reports</a>; open statements by PA officials—show that the PA sponsors terrorism to the tune of about $360 million per year—more than 7 percent of its entire budget and 45 percent of the foreign aid it expects to receive in 2018.
What follows is an excerpt from our recent interview with Gerber.
Gordon: On March 23, 2018 the Taylor Force Act was enacted into law by President Trump. What has the Trump administration done since we last interviewed you to shut down possible U.S. funding of the PLO Fatah pay-to-slay program?
Gerber: The Trump administration has been quite busy, and the reality is most aspects of the Taylor Force Act have yet to be implemented. I put the blame for a lack of implementation on the Embassy move, which diverted a lot of State Department attention. The legislation contains a schedule for implementation of the Taylor Force Act. In late May, the Secretary of State was supposed to submit a list of all the projects that will be suspended because of Palestinian Authority (PA) violations of the terms of the Taylor Force Act. That did not happen. Other previous deadlines have been missed. There is no indication, however, that the State Department will not eventually comply. By law they are obligated to comply, but they are behind schedule. The only thing they have done so far is they have sent a list of what it means to provide aid that directly benefits the Palestinian Authority. They sent a list of criteria. However, we are still waiting for implementation of the rest of the Act. What I am particularly happy with is that under the Act the State Department is charged with highlighting and identifying whether the PA is still paying terrorists, whether they are publicly condemning violence, and whether they have revoked the laws governing the system of compensation for the prisoners and their so-called martyrs. There is a lot of work for the State Department to do, and I think everyone will be quite pleased to see what the State Department comes up with. However, frankly they are behind schedule at present.
Bryant: Would there be a collapse of their economy, because of the funds that would be impounded?
Gerber No, absolutely, not. No one really believes that cutting the aid to the Palestinian Authority would cause a collapse of the Palestinian Authority. In fact, most assessments are that the real worry is there is a very high likelihood the Palestinian Authority will collapse if Abbas passes on.
Bryant: What we are saying here is that at least one part of the Israeli military is above the whole pay-for-slay thing.
Bryant: Has there been any pushback from the media after Taylor Force passed?
Gordon: This Spring there were two rulings before the U.S. Supreme Court that stymied obtaining compensation for both American and Israeli victims of Palestinian terror. Do you know if there are any possible suggestions out there for litigation relief for both U.S. and Israeli victims of such terrorism?
Gordon: Given the eruption of violence in Gaza this spring does the West make a distinction between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas in terms of conduct of terrorism?
Gerber: I think that this is really the purpose of the Taylor Force Act, which was to show that the Palestinian Authority and Hamas are two sides of the same coin. Both are actively conducting a war against the State of Israel and they are doing it in different ways. Hamas is conducting an open war against the State of Israel. The Palestinian Authority is conducting a war by means of radicalizing civilians to operate as so-called lone wolves. Hamas tells its citizens and operatives go to the border and try to cross the border. If you get hurt, we will pay you. By the way, the Palestinian Authority also pays for the Hamas fighters that were killed. They are paid by the Palestinian Authority, not just by Hamas. That is why Hamas is openly directing people to attack Israel. The Palestinian Authority, however, wages war by means of education. They indoctrinate people from a young age that the Israelis are the enemy, that they are virtually subhuman, that they are part of a racist ideology which traces its roots back to Nazism. When you are indoctrinated and become a martyr or a fighter, you will be paid. Compared to Hamas, the PA’s way is subtler. The Palestinian Authority can on one hand have people smiling, wearing suits and ties, but on the other hand they back a whole institution of pay-for-slay.
Bryant: Is there really a solution to this? Do you think that there is anything on the table that is substantive enough to counter this or do you think that this is going to be a constant battle that we must deal with all the time?
Bryant: Is the only way to combat this pay-for-slay program by economic sanctions or withholding funding?
Listen to the Israel News Talk Radio—Beyond the Matrix interviews with Sander Gerber, here and here.
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Jerome B Gordon is a Senior Vice President of New English Review and author of The West Speaks, NER Press 2012. Mr. Gordon is a former US Army intelligence officer who served during the Viet Nam era. He was the co-host and co-producer of weekly The Lisa Benson Show for National Security that aired out of KKNT960 in Phoenix Arizona from 2013 to 2016. He is co-host and co-producer of the Middle East Round Table periodic series on 1330amWEBY, Northwest Florida Talk Radio, Pensacola, Florida.
Rod Bryant is host of Israel News Talk Radio-Beyond the Matrix.
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