The Biden Administration’s Failed Palestinian Policy

by Farley Weiss, Chairman

3/8/2023, 12:44:30 PM

On March 5, 2023, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted, “I am still waiting to hear a condemnation from the Palestinian Authority for the murder of the Yaniv brothers.”

Indeed, all of Israel is waiting for the international community to insist that the P.A. condemn such terror attacks as the Feb. 26 killing of Hallel and Yagel Yaniv. Not only has the world not done so, it continues to turn a blind eye to the P.A.’s rampant incitement, the disgusting spectacle of Palestinians handing out sweets to celebrate terror attacks and the official P.A. “pay-to-slay” policy, which funds imprisoned terrorists and their families.

As Netanyahu said, “The international community’s silence in the face of Palestinian support for terrorism must finally come to an end.”

The fundamental reason for the escalation of terror in Israel is that it is financially incentivized by the P.A. and its leader Mahmoud Abbas. On his recent visit to Israel, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken stood next to Abbas and listened as Abbas failed to condemn multiple terrorist attacks. The P.A.’s Ambassador to the U.K. Husam Zomlot was asked if he condemned the murder of seven Jews outside a synagogue. He answered point blank: “No.”

Blinken cited Abbas’s claims that he opposes terrorism. However, Abbas’s condemnations are hollow, because he does not consider attacks against Jews to be terrorism. That is why he financially rewards terror and allows P.A. media to celebrate terrorists as heroes.

Despite this, the Biden administration has massively and proudly increased aid to the P.A. At the same time, the administration is circumventing the Taylor Force Act, which would cut that aid due to the P.A.’s financial support for terrorism. The White House has also upgraded ties with the P.A. by appointing Hady Amr as Special Representative for Palestinian Affairs. The administration has even repeatedly broken its promise not to criticize Israel publicly.

The previous Trump Administration, by contrast, had a successful Middle East policy. Its public criticism was reserved for the P.A., Abbas and their “pay to slay” policy. There was no daylight between Israel and the White House. It is not a coincidence that during the last two years of the Trump administration that there were fewer Israelis killed by terrorists (12) than have been murdered in just the last few weeks.

The cause of all of this is Abbas. The Palestinian leader denied the Holocaust in his Ph.D. thesis and a subsequent book. He was Yasser Arafat’s right-hand man in the terrorist PLO for more than 30 years. He financed the Munich Olympics Massacre and hailed its mastermind Abu Daoud as a hero.

In fact, Abbas has extolled numerous terrorists as heroes and routinely names schools and public squares after them. His P.A. produces television shows that encourage Palestinian Arab youth to become terrorists themselves.

It’s not surprising that the Anti-Defamation League found that the Palestinian Arabs are the most antisemitic people in the world, with more than 90% expressing antisemitic views. Their leader has supported antisemitism and the murder of Jews for his entire adult life.

There is a clear moral imperative to oppose any regime that rewards terrorists and extols them as heroes. Former President George W. Bush expressed that imperative after 9/11, when he said the U.S. would treat terrorists and those who provide sanctuary to them in the same way. It is obviously against American interests and values to support the P.A., which is an antisemitic, anti-American entity that gives money and shelter to terrorists.

There is no more obvious fight between good and evil than the one between democratic Israel and the terror-supporting P.A. and Hamas. The Talmud famously says that he who is merciful to the cruel will be cruel to the merciful. The Biden has adopted a policy that has become cruel to Israel.

Abbas has never wanted peace. Like Arafat, he educates his people to believe that the Jewish people have no right to a nation of their own and all of Israel should be a Palestinian Arab state. The Biden administration’s embrace of Abbas has led to a massive increase in terrorism. It needs to stop aid to the P.A. so long as the P.A. maintains its “pay-to-slay” policy. This would lead to the end of the terrible rise in terrorist attacks on Jews and Americans in Israel.