Arab/Islamic terrorists kill in no small part because it is profitable--for them and/or for their families--to kill. Eliminating--or at least minimizing--terrorism's profitability is an important method for decreasing terrorism. Let's also be up front about debunking the notion that it is somehow racist to refer to Arab/Islamic terrorists or Arab/Islamic terrorism; the people who are committing these terrorist acts shout "Allahu Akbar" (God is great) and "Itbach al-yahud" (kill the Jews), and post videos citing their Islamic religious and/or Arab nationalistic motivations, while the nations and organizations that sponsor Arab/Islamic terrorism make it clear that they believe the murders they commit are justified for religious and/or nationalistic reasons. That does not mean that all Arabs or Muslims are terrorists any more than condemning Russian atrocities means that all Russians or all white people or all Christians are to blame for Russia's war against Ukraine--but it does mean that Arab/Islamic terrorism exists and must be confronted, just like Russia's violations of international law exist and must be confronted.
One would think that people who oppose military interventions would be enthusiastic about cutting off funding for Arab/Islamic terrorists, so it is odd that many of the politicians who speak most fervently against military interventions also oppose cutting off funding to nations and organizations that sponsor terrorism; anyone who turns a blind eye to the massive amount of funding being provided to Arab/Islamic terrorists is making sure that there will be more violence and more bloodshed, not less.
It is no secret that Iran is a leading state sponsor of Arab/Islamic terrorism, nor is it a secret that the Palestinian Authority's "pay for slay" program provides an enormous economic incentive to commit terrorist acts (and yes, I know that Iranians are Persians, not Arabs--that does not change the reality that the Iranian government sponsors Arab/Islamic terrorism not just in and against Israel, but around the world).
The amount of funding provided to Arab/Islamic terrorists by the Palestinian Authority alone is as staggering as it is sickening, as reported in Terror Pays: 20 Years After Passover Seder Massacre, Terrorists Rewarded with Millions:
We recently marked the twentieth anniversary of the infamous Passover Seder Massacre. As families sat down to participate in the Passover dinner at the Park Hotel in Netanya, a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up murdering 30 people and injuring another 160.
Every month, the Palestinian Authority spends tens of thousands of shekels/dollars/euros to reward the family of the suicide bomber and pay salaries to the terrorists who were arrested for their part in the massacre.
Among the terrorists arrested for the attack are:
Abbas Al-Sayid – Arrested May 2002 – Main planner of the attack – Sentenced to 35 life sentences
Fathi Hatib – Arrested May 2002 – Convicted for transporting the suicide bomber – Sentenced to 29 life sentences
Muhannad Shreim – Arrested May 2002 – Financed the attack – Sentenced to 29 life sentences
Muamar Al-Sheikh – Arrested May 2002 – deputy of Abbas Al-Sayid – Sentenced to 29 life sentences
Each one of the terrorists above has by now been paid over one million shekels by the PA as a reward for their participation in the murder of 30 Israelis.
The payments to the perpetrators of the Passover Seder Massacre are just a small part of a large trend. Palestinian Media Watch notes the vast amount of money that the PA spends to sponsor terrorism:
..."according to financial reports published by the PA, in the entire year of 2021, the PA wage bill for the entire Ministry of Health (employees of the ministry, doctors, nurses etc.) was 892,607,850 shekels ($273,331,528)."
In comparison, Ramallah has spent 840 million shekels ($256 million) in 2021 on "financial rewards to imprisoned terrorists, released terrorists, wounded terrorists and the families of dead terrorists." That's an estimate because the Palestinian Authority is not transparent about how it accounts for for its controversial pay-for-slay stipends.
In 2020, for example, Palestinian leaders showed European officials a fake budget with terror stipends erased.
The Palestinians have been forced to fudge their numbers because of the Taylor Force Act of 2018, which halted U.S. aid to the Palestinians as long as terror stipends were being paid out.
The Act was is named for Taylor Force, a American graduate student who was stabbed to death by Bashar Masalha, a 21-year-old Palestinian in a Jaffa stabbing spree in 2016. Masalha injured 11 other people before he was shot and killed by police officers. Congress took action after learning that Masalha's family was benefiting from the stipends.
Arab/Islamic terrorists often boast that they will defeat Israel and
America in the long run because they love death more than we love life,
and we must take that message seriously, lest they succeed in destroying
secular democracies. We must prove our love for life not by being seduced by fraudulent ideologies that traffic in false moral equivalencies, but rather by proving equal to the challenge of combating Arab/Islamic terrorism economically, politically, and militarily.
I call on all self-proclaimed "progressives" who piously lecture Israel about what policies she should follow while being silent about the terror war that has been waged against Israel for decades to instead direct their focus and their power to demanding that the Palestinian Authority immediately stop financing terrorism, and instead use those funds to improve the lives of the residents of the Palestinian Authority. Criticizing Israel while ignoring--or even praising--the Palestinian Authority is like attacking a mugging victim while praising and giving money to the people who did the mugging. No clear-thinking person can take seriously a so-called "progressive" agenda that completely misreads who are the victims and who are the terrorists in the Mideast: point blank, if you can't figure out that blowing up innocent people who are celebrating Passover is wrong--no matter how much you may disagree with a particular Israeli policy--then I have no interest in or respect for your so-called "progressive" agenda regarding any other issue. If you side with dictatorships, terrorists, and murderers, then go see how interested those dictatorships, terrorists, and murderers are in making the world more "progressive." The term "useful idiot" is the perfect description for anyone who thinks that supporting the terrorist war against Israel somehow helps downtrodden people anywhere.
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