In his final hours in office, John Kerry formally notified Congress that the State Department was releasing $221 million in aid to Mahmoud Abbas’s government, despite the hold that the House of Representatives had twice put on the funds. Elliot Kaufman comments:
President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry surprised many observers by devoting so much of their waning time in office to excoriating Israel. But it turns out they had more mischief planned: a last-minute Palestinian bailout. . . . The Obama administration informed Congress that the money would fund humanitarian projects as well as political and security reforms to help prepare for a future Palestinian state. However, only the willfully blind can deny that this money will also finance terrorism and ultimately prolong the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Since 2004, Palestinian law has explicitly mandated large monthly payments to the families of terrorists who attack Israel, as well as salaries and jobs for the terrorists on their release from Israeli jails. The PA structures the payments so as to make its incentives crystal-clear: the more Israelis you wound or kill, the more money your family will receive. Some families of terrorists can even receive up to $3,100 per month—so long as their relative has killed many Israelis and either died during the attack or was sentenced to over 30 years in Israeli jail. By comparison, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics reports that the average Palestinian salary is just over $276 per month.
These payments add up. In 2014, Israel estimated that the PA paid $75 million per year to families of terrorists. However, the number may have risen sharply this past year, to $137.8 million, financing the “knife intifada” that terrorized Israelis. By transferring $221 million in its final hours, the Obama administration has tried to ensure that the PA will be able to carry on business as usual without reducing its terror subsidies.
Read more on National Review: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/444186/barack-obama-palestinian-authority-bailout-us-transferred-money-may-fund-terrorism