Penalize 'settlers,' but let the Palestinian Authority get away from its responsibilities

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(JNS) — Despite all that’s happening in Israel, the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, three U.S. senators—the chairs of important senate committees—are outraged over the behavior of some Jewish residents of the Shomron and Yehuda.

The three—Ben Cardin (D-Md.), chair of the committee; Jack Reed (D-R.I.), chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee; and Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence—sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen expressing their growing concern about extremist settler violence against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank.

According to the letter sent to Blinken and Yellen, “extremist settlers continue to escalate the violence they perpetrate against innocent Palestinian civilians in the West Bank. These attacks threaten not only to destabilize an already volatile West Bank, they also imperil hopes for a negotiated two-state outcome and run the risk of expanding the current conflict in Gaza throughout the region. The violence harms ordinary Palestinians and undermines Israeli security.”

The letter continues: “It is imperative that the perpetrators of this violence be held accountable, along with the organizations that fund and incite them. We urge you to ‘follow the money’ and consider sanctions against other perpetrators and their supporters ….”

Senators, you are blaming the wrong people.

A few days ago, Israel succeeded in killing three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in Beirut: Muhammed Nidal Abdel-Aal, head of the PFLP in Lebanon; Imad Odeh, who ran its military office; and Abdul Rahman Abdel Aal.

So, you may be asking, why would Israel target PFLP leaders in Lebanon?

Nidal Abdel-Aal organized terrorist attacks and related activities in the Shomron and Yehuda. He also directed the bus bombing in Beitar Illit on March 9, 2023, and the shooting attack from a passing vehicle at the Huwara Junction on March 25, 2023, during which two soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces were injured.

For starters, the PFLP is not some shadowy group. It is the second-largest faction in the Palestinian Authority and its parent body, the Palestine Liberation Organization. It has been part of the PLO since the PLO’s founding in 1964. Over the years, the PFLP has perpetrated countless heinous terrorist attacks, including hijackings of airplanes.

One of the most notorious took place on Aug. 11, 1976, when two PFLP terrorists threw hand grenades and sprayed machine-gun fire at passengers in the El Al terminal in Istanbul’s central airport.

The PFLP is on the official U.S. list of terrorist groups. But for some reason, that hasn’t stopped the Biden administration from resuming U.S. financial assistance to the P.A., even though the PFLP remains the P.A.’s second-largest faction.

The PLO was required by the 1993 Oslo Accords to act against terror groups. But PLO-P.A. chairman Yasser Arafat never took action against the PFLP, and neither has his successor, Mahmoud Abbas. He hasn’t expelled the PFLP from the PLO-P.A. He hasn’t outlawed the PFLP. He never sent the P.A. security forces to confiscate their weapons or shut down their safe houses.

If Abbas and the P.A. were serious about opposing terrorism, they would have acted against the PFLP. Instead, they have treated the PFLP terrorists as members in good standing and even permitted them to compete in the few elections that have been held under the P.A.

If Cardin, Reed and Warner are truly worried about “settler” violence that “harms ordinary Palestinians,” why are they not similarly worried about P.A. support for the PFLP? And what about the P.A.’s violation of the Taylor Force Act as it continues to pay salaries and stipends to imprisoned terrorists and their families; both prohibited by U.S. law? Doesn’t that undermine the security of Israelis within Israel and territories? Their safety and security don’t count?

The P.A.’s coddling, aiding and abetting of the PFLP is significant on many levels. It violates the Oslo Accords, and it represents a direct danger to Israel. But most of all, the P.A.’s relationship with the PFLP is important because it reveals the authority’s true colors. The P.A. is a terrorist regime, and it should be treated as such. Cardin, Reed and Warner should be directing their ire not at a few residents of the Shomron and Yehuda but at the P.A. leadership who let terror organizations run rampant.