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Monday, November 09, 2020

Biden and the Taylor Force Act (Michael Lumish)


People are going to say that I am a broken record. They will say that almost nobody really cares about the Taylor Force Act. They will argue that it is ridiculous to think that a Biden administration will finance the murder of Jews in Israel, despite "pay-for-slay" or the "Martyrs Fund."

Of course, the great majority of people who make such claims will not have the slightest idea who Taylor Force was or what the Taylor Force Act is.

The Taylor Force Act (H.R. 1164) was passed by the 115th Congress. It was signed into law by the House of Representatives on December 5, 2017, and the US Senate on March 23, 2018.

Section 4, subsection A tells us that US tax dollars may go to the Palestinian Authority on condition that the PA takes "credible steps to end acts of violence against Israeli citizens and United States citizens that are perpetrated or materially assisted by individuals under their jurisdictional control, such as the March 2016 attack that killed former United States Army officer Taylor Force, a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."

What this means is that the US government is prohibited from handing over US cash dollars to the PA so long as it maintains the "Martyrs Fund." That is, so long as they insist upon paying off the murderers and attackers of random Jews or Americans in the streets of Israel, Mahmoud Abbas or the PA or the PLO will not receive a dime from the American taxpayer.

One would need to be an ethical homunculus to think that Americans have an obligation to pay-off the murderers of our brothers and sisters in Israel.

With Donald Trump, there was no question that we would not be forced to pay for the murder of Taylor Force, pictured below. He was a 29-year-old Army vet who had served in Iraq and Afghanistan before he was murdered, and his wife severely injured, in a PA-inspired slashing spree in the streets of Jaffa on March 9, 2016.

This puts a Joe Biden presidency in a very tough spot because Biden promises that he will give US tax dollars to the PA even as the PA vows to maintain the "Martyrs Fund."

Biden also claims that he will abide by the Taylor Force Act. That is good. That is what we need clarification on because a President Joe Biden simply cannot have it both ways.

He cannot keep his promise to Mahmoud Abbas if Abbas, as he swears to, maintains the Martyrs Fund.

And he cannot keep his promise to American Jews, and Americans, more generally, if he allows such payments to go through and thereby maintaining "pay-for-slay."

Thus, Biden is a cypher on this question. It remains a mystery because no one discusses it and he never gets asked about it.

But the reason that it is not discussed is because we, ourselves, are not discussing the question and we need to. This is not a secondary, minor issue. This is a question around whether or not the American taxpayer will be forced to finance the murder of Jews and Americans in Israel.

I have asked Hen Mazzig and Seth J. Frantzman, both of whom are Biden supporters, what they think of the "Taylor Force Question" and neither has so much as acknowledged it, from what I can tell.

On his website, Mazzig describes himself as an "Israeli writer, international speaker, social media activist and advocate." Frantzman tells us on his Facebook page that he is a "journalist, writer, photographer, PhD." We need pro-Jewish and pro-Israel supporters of Biden, such as these two guys, to ask the hard questions

Most importantly, Joe Biden needs to clarify his contradictory stance on the issue because I, for one, despise the idea that an American political party will force me to pay for the murder of my fellow Jews and Americans.

{Not my nickel, damn you.}




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