Rand Paul: Corker blocked effort to stop Palestinian terror aid

Senator Rand Paul, R-Ky., claimed Wednesday that his colleague, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., blocked his bill proposing to suspend aid to the Palestinian Authority over its terrorist payment program.

The row occurred Wednesday morning during a Senate Foreign Affairs Committee hearing concerning the merits of the Taylor Force Act, a that bill that seeks to cut off aid in response to the Palestinian “martyr fund.” (The bill is named after a 28-year-old U.S. Army officer who was killed in a Palestinian terrorist attack while he was visiting Israel last year.)

The legislation is supported by a bipartisan majority in the Senate, and would cease American funds to the Palestinian Authority until it ends payments to terrorists’ families.

Sen. Paul described his continued efforts to stop the hundreds of millions in U.S. cash flowing to questionable hands overseas.

“In 2014, I brought the subject up … where I offered a bill that would have cut off aid to the Palestinian Authority unless they were to renounce all ties to terrorism,” Paul stated. “The chairman [Bob Corker] blocked me at the time … from bringing it up in the full Senate.”

“Cut it all. Cut every last penny of it,” Paul advocated. “If you want to restart it, restart it when they change their behavior.” The Kentucky senator urged both the U.S. Senate and the Israeli Knesset to pass meaningful legislation in support of the cause.

In response, Corker explained that the Israeli government had requested that he not support the bill.

If Congress fails to pass legislation, and the Trump administration does not change Obama-era policies, the American taxpayers will send approximately $215 million to the Palestinian Authority in fiscal year 2018.

The PA dedicates up to 10 percent of its annual budget toward salary payments to terrorists and families of terrorists who’ve been killed attacking Israeli innocents. They receive roughly $350 to $3,000 a month, depending on the case. (The more people the jihadis kill or wound, the greater the payments).