State Dep’t may help shield Palestinians from having to pay damages to terror victims
posted at 11:59 am on February 12, 2008 by Allahpundit
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Because, after all, every dollar of remuneration to a struggling Israeli widow is one less that’s available to build that state they’ve been working on for the past 60 years. I confess to taking a perverse pleasure in this story, just because it illustrates so absurdly the consequences of buddying up to our eternal “partners in peace.” The only way to make it more surreal would be to have the U.S. government indemnify them by simply cutting a check in the amount of the damages they owe — not quite $300 million, per WaPo. Which of course would mean you and I were, quite literally, paying for Palestinian terror. We already pay for Saudi terror. Why not?
The State Department is considering supporting the Palestinian Authority in its quest to avoid paying hundreds of millions of dollars in judgments won by American victims of Palestinian terrorist attacks in Israel, according to Palestinian officials and defense lawyers involved in the cases…
Testimony in Israeli courts has connected senior Palestinian leaders — such as the late Yasser Arafat — to specific terrorist attacks involved in the lawsuits. But Palestinian officials have argued that it makes no sense for the United States to be providing millions of dollars in aid to the Palestinian Authority while U.S. courts are threatening to bankrupt it…
Leslye Knox, a 46-year-old mother of six children and widow of Aharon Ellis, a U.S. citizen who was killed in 2002 while singing at a bar mitzvah in Hadera, Israel, said that she has sued under a law passed by Congress in 1990 after the murder of Leon Klinghoffer by terrorists who seized the Achille Lauro cruise ship. In 2006, a federal judge ordered the PLO and the Palestinian Authority to pay Knox and other Ellis relatives nearly $174 million, but nothing has been paid while Knox has struggled to support her family…
“If the State Department tips the scales of justice against the victims in order to support adjudicated terrorists, the war on terrorism will be seen throughout the world as a farce,” said David J. Strachman, a Rhode Island lawyer who has spearheaded many of the lawsuits.
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It must be great to have a government job. If you hate your employer they will pay you to get even and ask for more.
snaggletoothie on February 12, 2008 at 12:07 PM
WHAT ?
stenwin77 on February 12, 2008 at 12:07 PM
Does the government have a reboot button?
kc8ukw on February 12, 2008 at 12:08 PM
I think they see Bush as really, really wanting a deal before he leaves office, so they’re asking for everything they can think of, from this all the way down to the falafel tab for the Al Aqsa Marytrs.
Attila (Pillage Idiot) on February 12, 2008 at 12:11 PM
Hey - how about this? Screw the Palestinians.
CP on February 12, 2008 at 12:11 PM
It has a restart button. See: User’s Manual, Independence, Declaration of.
amerpundit on February 12, 2008 at 12:12 PM
Remember when Condoleeza Rice actually excited people? “She’ll be the next president!”
How times have changed. What a disgrace she turned out to be.
amkun on February 12, 2008 at 12:16 PM
With friends like GEorge Bush & Condi Rice,
Isreal doesn’t need any enemies.
stenwin77 on February 12, 2008 at 12:18 PM
Haven’t I seen some HA posters suggest Condi as a good VP candidate?
a capella on February 12, 2008 at 12:18 PM
Israel sends a ton of money to the Palestinians too…But I’m going to doubt that they’re going to go along with the US on this deal.
JetBoy on February 12, 2008 at 12:19 PM
Bush’s legacy+
1- destruction of the Republican party.
2- elimination of the US sovreignty (amnesty)
3- no illegal alien left behind
4- alienation of our ally - Isreal
5- failure of the sub-prime market
6- highest deficet in our history.
Wow - so much, so little time. And he’s worrying NOW about his legacy.
stenwin77 on February 12, 2008 at 12:23 PM
Well, you sure have that first part right pal. It makes no sense to provide millions of dollars in aid while your “moderate” government still funds, aids, directs and supports terrorist organizations such as the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. No one outside the State Department and MSM buy the whole “loosly affiliated with Fatah” bit.
Hollowpoint on February 12, 2008 at 12:27 PM
How about if we just deduct the judgments from whatever aid we give the palestinians, and pay it directly to the victims. That way, they do still pay a price for the terrorism we’re sponsoring indirectly.
cdn.infidel on February 12, 2008 at 12:48 PM
You should run for public office. I’d not only vote for you, I’d make phone calls, campaign and fundraise.
JustTruth101 on February 12, 2008 at 12:56 PM
Foggy Bottom has historically been on the wrong side of issue’s. Just because turncoat rice is now in charge, should that change history? UN/State Department…Time to unfund and let them go. start over with both.
Bob67 on February 12, 2008 at 1:13 PM
No need to bother; they seem quite successful at screwing themselves.
calbear on February 12, 2008 at 1:54 PM
Israel collects palestinian’s taxes for the PA, which are then supposed to be distributed, but these monies have been mostly witheld over the last years when Hamas was ‘elected’.
I also read many comments & other bloggers too suggesting Rice as VP. Shouldn’t the total NSA failure on 9/11, and now the disastrous stint at the State Dept clear up the air that Condi is a fantastic bookworm with a big brain, and often typical of academia fairly useless in real life if not detrimental!?
saus on February 12, 2008 at 2:19 PM
Its not its their money anyway.
What are the chances that it comes from the millions of dollars that the U.S. is somehow connived into paying the palestinian authority so it can pay its workers salaries so they can play pretend.
The process just gets more disgusting as the legal layers mount.
I for one dont believe in these suits.
Its degrading for the dead that we can absolve Qaddafi for enabling a 747 to be blown to bits with people inside simply by a monetary award.
Personally after acts of such barbarity I can see nothing short of death as being an appropriate solution.
Of course, Im not a trained diplomatic expert.
Sonosam on February 12, 2008 at 2:21 PM
Thank god that they stopped those rascally Israelis from getting any more money. They might spend it on terrorism or bombs. Wait a sec…
NeoconNews.com on February 12, 2008 at 3:22 PM
John Edwards(D) can enrich himself by driving up health insurance rates for all of us but our government seeks to shield terrorists from lawsuits?
Cut off the money. We are subsidizing terrorists either way.
DANEgerus on February 12, 2008 at 4:19 PM
This doesn’t surprise me at all. The State Department has hated the Jewish people for years and has been against Israel since the country was formed. This is the same State Department that worked with University of California last year on a program for Middle East businessmen, excluding Israelis.
I would love to see the State Department cleaned out with a large broom.
Mooseman on February 12, 2008 at 7:43 PM
It also makes no sense to have a State Department that cares little about the state of the Union. Let’s eliminate that as well.
jeffNWV on February 12, 2008 at 8:45 PM
Solving paleostinian/human problem? Is Bush being cynical or just stupid?
BL@KBIRD on February 12, 2008 at 8:49 PM