OPINION COLUMNS APRIL 19 2023
Over Pesach, the Jewish world was rocked by yet another set of siblings, the third such set in under 60 days, being killed at the hands of Palestinian terrorists in Israel. The sisters, Maia and Rina Dee, were shot by a gunman when they were driving with their mother, who died a couple days later from her injuries. At the same time, on the other side of the country, Italian tourist Alessandro Parini was killed when a Palestinian terrorist committed a car ramming attack in Tel Aviv.
These deaths make 18 people who were killed this year alone by Palestinian terrorism in the State of Israel. These are the ones that we hear about. Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar announced a couple of weeks ago that over 200 terror attacks have been foiled by Israeli security forces since the beginning of 2023. Bar stated that the attacks included shootings, bombings, kidnappings, and other types of attacks. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to capture every terrorist, claiming that “Iran is responsible for 95 percent of the security threats against us.”
Ultimate responsibility and blame for these attacks clearly lie with the terrorists themselves, who are ready, willing, and able to kill innocent men, women, and children for the great crime of living in the land of their ancestors. Yet the increase in size and severity of these attacks over the past few years cannot go unnoticed and unremarked upon, especially considering the massively changing Middle East after several years of relative calm.
Joe Biden’s foreign policy has been a disaster – and always has been. In his 2014 memoir, the former Defense Secretary under Barack Obama, Robert Gates, said that Biden had been “wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.” Contrast that with President Trump, for whom foreign policy was his strong suit, and Biden looks even more inept.
Biden took a Middle East that had the most stability it has had in nearly a century and set it on fire. First, he rebuffed the Saudis to both contrast himself to Trump after Jamal Khashoggi was killed and to make nice with the Iranians. Then, he tried to renegotiate the horrific Iran Deal, putting himself in a weak position. Then there was the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, in which 13 US service members were killed, hundreds of American citizens were left behind, and thousands of Afghan allies were forgotten. Immediately, the Taliban retook the country, subjecting tens of millions of Afghans to the horrors of Sharia law. The Taliban then turned around and gave a home to al-Qaeda, the organization that committed the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
So, the region is becoming more and more volatile, with terrorists getting increased funding from the Iranian government and emboldened by the victories of their fellows in Afghanistan. What does Joe Biden do? He violates the Taylor Force Act and refunds the Palestinian Authority.
The Taylor Force Act is a US law that was passed in 2018. It is named after an American tourist named Taylor Force, who was killed by a Palestinian terrorist while visiting Israel in 2016. The act seeks to cut off US aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA) until it stops their “Pay to Slay” program, which has been paying stipends to terrorists and their families. Under the PA’s “martyr’s fund” policy, Palestinians who carry out attacks against Israelis or who are killed in such attacks are eligible for monthly stipends. The amount of the stipend increases with the severity of the attack and the length of the perpetrator’s imprisonment.
One of the first foreign policy decisions Biden made was refunding the Palestinian Authority, to the tune of $235 million. A year later, he pledged an additional $316 million. In October 2022, USAID said in a press release that “Under the Biden-Harris administration…USAID plans to program at least $500 million between 2021-2024 in total support to the Palestinian people.” This is aside from the funding that Biden gave to UNRWA, the United Nations front group that provides aid and comfort to Palestinian terrorists – and has done so for 75 years.
The Palestinian Authority is waging a Third Intifada against Israel in everything but name, and Biden is paying the bills for it. The blood of Lucy Dee, Rina Dee, and Maia Dee is on his hands, and he has no interest in stopping it. He’s more interested in telling the Israelis not to escalate the situation and to interfere in the internal machinations of judicial reforms. The terrorists are hearing the message loud and clear from the Biden administration: It’s open season on Jews.
It’s up to the Israeli government to stop this, because they are not going to be getting any help from Washington.
