Four US Senators and how they betrayed Taylor Force
Four US Senators and how they betrayed Taylor Force

First the good news: Last week the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 17-4 in favor of the Taylor Force Act.

This measure, to be voted on by the full Senate later this year, is intended to curb our dollars, into the millions, that go directly to the Palestinian Authority (PA) and in turn end up as payments to Palestinian Arabs with Jewish blood on their hands. This Mahmoud Abbas initiative celebrates so-called Arab “martyrs” and pays their families large sums per month for the “glory” of murdering Jews.

Listen to this from an Arutz Sheva review. “A recent report found that more than half of the PA's yearly budget goes to terrorists, and Brig. Gen. (Res.) Yossi Kuperwasser told the Knesset that the PA has dedicated more then $1 billion for such purposes in the last four years alone.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), has deplored the pay-to-slay practice. He calls it “sick” and declares that it must be stopped.

So this is a first step in getting it stopped. 

More good news: Every Republican on the Committee voted for the bill and so did six Democrats. 

Now the bad news: Four Democrats voted against, and they are, Cory Booker (NJ), Chris Murphy (CT), Tom Udall (NM) and Jeff Merkley (OR).

What could they have been thinking? That funding murder is okay? 

More likely, they intended to please certain members of their Palestinian/Muslim constituencies. That could work for the moment, maybe.

In the end, though, they voted themselves onto the wrong side of history. 

Against Israel they have taken the side of the Hittites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites and thousands more like them who ages ago fell into dust and oblivion – the same fate that awaits the “Palestinian people,” people who arise only to be thorns unto the Hebrews, and then disappear.  (Borrowed from the novel “The Bathsheba Deadline.”)

Particularly so the Palestinians who are not even Palestinians, but rather a collection of tribes from around the Arab world.

Their co-founder, Yasser Arafat, was Egyptian.

If all that sounds too biblical, then let it be said that the FOUR NAYSAYER SENATORS acted entirely too political. 

Somewhere I read their explanations and their excuses, but so much of it was gobbledygook that it made no sense to me.

Nor would it make sense to anyone who has an understanding heart. There is nothing vague or subtle about Abbas’ program. 

His program calls for the murder of every Israeli and every Jew, else why the reward?

Taylor Force, a US Army Veteran, was not Jewish (so far as I know) but on a visit to Israel last year he was murdered by an Arab whose family now live wealthy from the PA pension. That’s what sparked the legislation. The only question is – what took so long?

Next question – who could vote against a bill that asks nothing more than humanity and decency?

Perhaps Murphy, Udall and Merkley would like another try explaining themselves, and as for Booker, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach feels “betrayed” by his “friend.”

The advice from Pirkei Avot (“Ethics of the Fathers”) is to “seek no intimacy with the ruling powers.” 

They will use you but when it counts they will let you down – and they did it again last week, times four.

New York-based bestselling American novelist Jack Engelhard writes regularly for Arutz Sheva. Engelhard wrote the international bestseller “Indecent Proposal” and the ground-breaking inside-journalism thriller “The Bathsheba Deadline.” His latest is “News Anchor Sweetheart.” He is the recipient of the Ben Hecht Award for Literary Excellence. Website: www.jackengelhard.com