The US is “simply exposing lie after lie and is standing up on truth after truth,” Netanyahu said of the passage of the Taylor Force Act.
By: United with Israel Staff
The US Congress on Friday passed the Taylor Force Act, which is designed to deny hundreds of millions of dollars in US aid that the Palestinian Authority (PA) uses to incite terrorism and to compensate murderous terrorists and their families.
The Taylor Force Act would require the US Secretary of State to verify that the PA has ended its policy of paying off terrorists and their surviving family members. The bill also calls on the PA to publicly condemn terror attacks and to take steps to bring the perpetrators to justice.
The legislation easily passed both chambers of Congress with strong bipartisan support, 256-167 in the House, and 65-32 in the Senate.
The legislation was named after American war veteran Taylor Force, who was stabbed to death in a Palestinian terror attack that left 10 others wounded in Jaffa in March 2016. Force, 29, served tours of duty in the US Army in Iraq and Afghanistan and was a graduate of the prestigious West Point Military Academy. He was in Israel as part of a Vanderbilt University trip.
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah faction praised the terrorist who murdered Force as a “heroic martyr,” and the PA has yet to condemn the attack.
The US provides the PA with approximately $300 million in aid annually. The PA makes approximately $300 million in payments to terrorists and their families every year.
Commenting on the passage of the bill, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that he thinks that it is “a very powerful signal from the US, which is changing the rules.”
The US “is unwilling to accept the truth of the past or, I should say, the lies of the past, and live with them,” Netanyahu said during the weekly Cabinet meeting. The US is “simply exposing lie after lie and is standing up on truth after truth.”
“I congratulate the American Congress and President [Donald] Trump for these decisions. I am certain that I do so on behalf of all Israeli government ministers,” he concluded.