Today marks the twentieth anniversary of the Sbarro pizzeria bombing in Jerusalem—one of the second intifada’s most brutal acts of terror, which left fifteen dead and 130 wounded. While the attack—like the scores of other such bombings in those years—did nothing to improve the lot of the Palestinians, or to aid in the creation of a Palestinian state, it proved quite lucrative for the attackers. Maurice Hirsch explains:

By now, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has paid Abdullah Barghouti, the terrorist who built the bomb and is responsible for the murder of 67 people in various attacks, a cumulative sum of $285,571. Every month, the PA pays him a salary of $2,255. In addition, the PA has paid the family of the suicide bomber $68,498. Every month the PA continues to pay his family an allowance of $432. The minimum wage in the PA is $44 a month.

The monthly PA salary payments to the imprisoned terrorists are not just a whim. Rather, they are codified in the PA Law of Prisoners and Released Prisoners, No. 19 of 2004 and regulations promulgated pursuant to the law.

As for Ahlam Tamimi, who planned the bombing, she lives in Jordan where she hosts a television program. In March, Interpol revoked the warrant for her arrest. She remains unrepentant:

[In 2011], Tamimi was interviewed on Israeli Channel 1. . . . After explaining that she was the one who chose the target of the attack, Tamimi was asked if she knew how many children had been killed in the attack. When she heard that eight children had been murdered, Tamimi broke into a huge smile.

In a subsequent interview, she told a Jordanian journalist:

I don’t regret what happened, absolutely not. That is the path; I give myself for the sake of Allah, to jihad for Allah. I carried out [my mission] and Allah made me successful. You know the number of victims who were killed. All that was thanks to the success from Allah.

For some time, opponents of U.S support for Israel have been urging the White House to end the war in Gaza, or simply calling for a ceasefire. Douglas Feith and Lewis Libby consider what such a result would actually entail:

Ending the war immediately would allow Hamas to survive and retain military and governing power. Leaving it in the area containing the Sinai-Gaza smuggling routes would ensure that Hamas can rearm. This is why Hamas leaders now plead for a ceasefire. A ceasefire will provide some relief for Gazans today, but a prolonged ceasefire will preserve Hamas’s bloody oppression of Gaza and make future wars with Israel inevitable.

For most Gazans, even when there is no hot war, Hamas’s dictatorship is a nightmarish tyranny. Hamas rule features the torture and murder of regime opponents, official corruption, extremist indoctrination of children, and misery for the population in general. Hamas diverts foreign aid and other resources from proper uses; instead of improving life for the mass of the people, it uses the funds to fight against Palestinians and Israelis.

Moreover, a Hamas-affiliated website warned Gazans last month against cooperating with Israel in securing and delivering the truckloads of aid flowing into the Strip. It promised to deal with those who do with “an iron fist.” In other words, if Hamas remains in power, it will begin torturing, imprisoning, or murdering those it deems collaborators the moment the war ends. Thereafter, Hamas will begin planning its next attack on Israel:

Hamas’s goals are to overshadow the Palestinian Authority, win control of the West Bank, and establish Hamas leadership over the Palestinian revolution. Hamas’s ultimate aim is to spark a regional war to obliterate Israel and, as Hamas leaders steadfastly maintain, fulfill a Quranic vision of killing all Jews.

Hamas planned for corpses of Palestinian babies and mothers to serve as the mainspring of its October 7 war plan. Hamas calculated it could survive a war against a superior Israeli force and energize enemies of Israel around the world. The key to both aims was arranging for grievous Palestinian civilian losses. . . . That element of Hamas’s war plan is working impressively.