Posted on 07/19/2017 10:55:18 PM PDT by Sheapdog
Breaking silence on stance over Taylor Force Act, Trump official stops short of endorsing legislation, but says administration supports objective.
WASHINGTON — The White House said on Wednesday it supports the objective of a bill working its way through the Senate that would cut US funding to the Palestinians over salaries paid to terrorists and their families, but stopped short of endorsing the legislation. The Taylor Force Act, which is due for a vote in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee before lawmakers leave for their August recess, would require the Palestinian Authority to stop paying stipends to the families of terrorists who kill Israelis, or else lose American aid.
“While the administration agrees with the high-level goals of the Taylor Force Act, it is currently in Congress’s hands and we will continue to closely monitor the specifics of the legislation,” a senior administration official told The Times of Israel.
The bill is named after a former US army officer who was stabbed to death by a Palestinian assailant while visiting Tel Aviv in March 2016.
The United States currently gives the PA nearly $500 million in annual aid. The legislation would allow only the portion designated for security assistance — roughly $60 million — to remain in place.
Up until now, the White House had remained mum on the bill. That has left some on Capitol Hill to wonder whether US President Donald Trump and his team fears the legislation would disrupt their attempts to broker an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal, which the administration consistently says is a “top priority.”
Trump did, however, confront PA President Mahmoud Abbas about the topic of Palestinian terror payments during their meetings in Washington and Bethlehem in May.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesofisrael.com ...
sooo,
Some of us want to stop paying palestinians to quit killing Americans and Israelis?
Oh, the horror.
Congress is so addicted to taking our money they give it to terrorists. Anybody but Americans.
The words “stops short” are cause for concern. There’s no excuse for why this has not already been done. Somebody in the White House is asleep at the switch.
If you'd like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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