Finally, the Israelis are showing some PR smarts and while they’re tops in practically everything else, public relations – not so much.

This time, it clicked.

Remarkably, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did it mostly by himself. The word is that Netanyahu presented the facts to President Trump, which is that Mahmoud Abbas, through his Fatah/PA has for years been paying his thugs hefty sums to go ahead and murder Israelis. 

Should the terrorist be eliminated in the process, a statue goes up honoring him, followed by cash to his family…a tribute from Abbas to Mom and Dad for raising a son so wonderfully. 

That could change if Congress gets around to passing the Taylor Force Act, named for an American West Point grad stabbed to death in Tel Aviv by a Palestinian Arab terrorist, who was terminated but whose family got itself enriched by the Palestinian Authority. That doubles the grief endured by Taylor’s mother and father.

The legislation is intended to curb such funding to the PA until the PA gets the message…if ever. Meantime the cash continues to flow from us to them and from them to their killers. Everybody knew that racket was going on but nobody talked about it because ...well, you expect the UN or the EU to give a damn? 

But now the secret’s out about those money-for-Jewish-blood payments and now Trump’s been clued in and already we hear it’s made a difference. 

Trump addressed the scandal directly to Abbas’ face, saying, “Peace can never be achieved where terrorists are funded and even rewarded.”

An astonishing moment. I know of no public reprimand like this coming from Obama or any other president or world leader, ever. 

All these years it’s Abbas who’s snatched the world’s attention. That’s because he knows advertising and he knows PR. He spreads it thick with falsehoods.

Maybe the Israelis have at last caught on to how it’s done, by picking a message of truth and repeating it until it sticks. 

Like it did for Trump. Now Trump, we hear, has changed his approach to Abbas, from a man who can be trusted to a man who can be trusted to tell lie after lie. Trump chewed him out, we hear from reliable sources, after finding out, again from Netanyahu, that Abbas was guilty of blood-curdling incitement against the Jewish State. 

My fellow American, our tax dollars help fund those Fatah/PA murderers. The figures – who knows?
Netanyahu even showed Trump the irrefutable evidence in words and pictures, which Trump passed along to Abbas. 

Thanks to Netanyahu’s straight talk, in language PR understands, Trump’s approach to the entire situation may have changed in favor of the home team.

(The Embassy move, or lack of it, is a temporary setback. Trump said he’d do it; he didn’t say when.)

Will anything even more tangible come from this?

Because, my fellow American, our tax dollars help fund those Fatah/PA murderers. The figures – who knows?

I hear that we give them $300 million a year. That’s one source. Another says $400 million, and this does not count the millions funneled to them through various UN agencies, to which we also contribute. Nor does it count the billions they keep getting from the Europeans, and, oh, Iran…and I almost forgot the millions Obama forked over to them as his farewell gift from office.

My assumption is that whatever figure we get, double it to get the true picture…how else do Abbas and his cronies get to build themselves $20 million palaces?

At one point Arafat’s (ill-gotten) wealth was listed as nearing the Queen of England.

This has to stop. The Taylor Force Act would be a place to start. 

Congress needs to pass it, Trump needs to sign it, and more Israeli PR needs to push it until it’s a done deal.

New York-based bestselling American novelist Jack Engelhard writes regularly for Arutz Sheva. His books, including “The Bathsheba Deadline,” are available from Amazon and other retailers. Engelhard wrote the international bestseller “Indecent Proposal” and the award-winning Montreal memoir “Escape from Mount Moriah.” His latest is “News Anchor Sweetheart.” He is the recipient of the Ben Hecht Award for Literary Excellence. Website: www.jackengelhard.com