U.S. Senator Ted Cruz slammed the Biden administration for policies that provide “rewards for terrorists and their families” after a decision to send millions of dollars to Palestinians.
The Texas Republican reacted to last week’s announcement by the State Department that, despite a 2018 law that prevents it, the administration would be supporting Palestinians with $250 million in payments. Cruz warned that “Americans will die” as a result.
“In 2019, the Palestinian Authority expressed its intention to spend $342.6 million on rewards for terrorists and their families. We’re not talking about a few dollars here and there,” the senator told SiriusXM’s “Breitbart News Sunday” host Joel Pollak.
“And now, with Joe Biden’s decision, a significant chunk of that $342 million is going to have come from you and me,” he added.
“We’re sending American taxpayer funds to [the Palestinian Authority] so they can fund terrorists,” Cruz continued, “and as a result of Joe Biden’s decision, Americans will die. Israelis will die. This money that Joe Biden is sending to terrorists will be used to commit more acts of terrorism, to incentivize terrorists, to murder women, to murder children.”
“Joe Biden decided that funding terrorists who kill Americans apparently is a good idea,” the GOP lawmaker said.
The Taylor Force Act, which was signed into law in 2018 by then-President Donald Trump, prohibits U.S. taxpayer dollars to be used to economically support the Palestinian Authority while it continues to pay jailed terrorists or families of deceased terrorists.
Besides some humanitarian exemptions, the law prevented funding for the Palestinians, but is now apparently being ignored by President Joe Biden’s administration which is set to spend $75 million on “economic and development assistance in the West Bank and Gaza,” another $10 million on “peacebuilding” as well as $150 million on the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, according to Secretary of State Tony Blinken.
The U.S. has already provided $15 million in humanitarian assistance to Palestinians.
NEW: Secretary of State Antony Blinken announces the U.S. will restart “economic, development, and humanitarian assistance for the Palestinian people.” pic.twitter.com/RUIC4VwRQG
— Alex Salvi (@alexsalvinews) April 7, 2021
“All assistance will be provided consistent with U.S. law,” Blinken claimed.
Speaking with Pollak on Sunday, Cruz decried the “pattern” that Biden is following with the latest move supporting America’s enemies.
“We’re just a few months in but [the Biden administration is] already demonstrating the same pattern we saw during eight years of the Obama administration, which is that they support our enemies, they fund our enemies, they fund people trying to kill Americans, and they undermine our friends. They undermine our allies,” he said.
“Barack Obama had been the most anti-Israel president ever … and I’m worried that Joe Biden wants to beat that record with respect to the Palestinians,” the senator added.
“We have given over $6.3 billion dollars to the Palestinian Authority. The Palestinian Authority is in a unity government with Hamas, a terrorist group that murders Americans and murders Israelis, and for years the Palestinian Authority has had a policy that’s called the pay-to-slay policy. … When terrorists murder people, the Palestinian government pays their families in perpetuity,” Cruz explained.
Decrying the latest move, Cruz noted how the Biden administration “announced at least $130 million that they’re sending to the Palestinian Authority.”
“They did it in the dark of night. They didn’t publicly discuss it. They were required to make a statutory notification of Congress — which they did — but no explanation other than pablum about, ‘Oh, we want peace,'” he added. “Well, paying people who are funding terrorists is not a way to get peace.”
Last week, Cruz and 17 other Republican senators sent Blinken a letter noting the administration’s violation of the Taylor Force Act, and pointing out how “U.S. programs have not just failed but have been counterproductive, with the money facilitating terrorist incitement and making its way to terrorists.”
“In just the last few weeks, U.S. government documents and announcements by the Palestinians have made clear those failings were systematic and structural,” the letter said.
Not only did the Biden admin just resume this US taxpayer $$$ despite the PA’s Pay to Slay program to financially reward terror and incite violence against innocent Israelis and Americans, but the Biden admin didn’t even address it head on in their funding announcement. Silence. https://t.co/rl0hIzzLQK
— Lee Zeldin (@RepLeeZeldin) April 7, 2021
Cruz explained in the interview that Taylor Force was a U.S. Army veteran from Texas who was killed in Tel Aviv.
“He was one of 11 people stabbed in 2016 by a terrorist. … The Palestinian Authority paid the family of the terrorist every year. It would send $25,000 to the family in support. It’s essentially a bounty on terror, The Taylor Force Act said … we’re not going to send U.S. taxpayer money for you to fund terrorists to kill Americans,” he said.
“This administration has demonstrated a far too great willingness to utterly ignore the law,” Cruz added.
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Frieda@bizpacreview.com
Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.
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