Today’s verdict in a federal court in New York City won’t end Palestinian terrorism. Nor will it force the Palestinian Authority or its foreign cheerleaders to recognize the legitimacy of a Jewish state or to cease working for its destruction. But the results of the trial in which a jury rightly held the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization responsible for terror attacks carried out during the Second Intifada, in which several Americans were killed and wounded, should remove any doubt about the fact that so-called Palestinian moderates are as connected to terrorism as more extreme factions like Hamas. As significant as the stunning $218.5 million in damages (that will be automatically tripled to $655.5 million under U.S. law because it involves terrorism) assessed against the defendants, the really important point is that the decision strips away the veneer of respectability that figures such as PA leader Mahmoud Abbas have acquired from both the Obama administration and the mainstream media.
The case was the work of Shurat HaDin — The Israel Law Center, which, under the leadership of Israeli attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner has waged an effective legal campaign against the perpetrators of terror. Darshan-Leitner and the American lawyers who have tried some of these cases have been able to bring the terrorists, their sponsors, as well as their enablers to the bar of justice. Last fall’s verdict in the case against The Arab Bank set down a precedent in which financial institutions could be held accountable for knowingly processing transactions that allow terror groups to do business. In this case against the PA and the PLO, they have brought to light the direct involvement of these institutions in the organization and financing of terrorism.
The reaction from the Obama administration to these verdicts is likely to be consternation. The federal government has opposed all efforts on the part of terror victims to get justice in these cases. But the State Department will be particularly motivated to aid the defendants now. The PA is a kleptocracy run by people like Abbas and his predecessor Yasir Arafat, who have looted the billions in U.S. and Western aid given to the Palestinians over the last two decades. Yet the gravy train never stops for Abbas and company since they are viewed by the Israelis as a necessary evil without whom they would be forced to govern the West Bank themselves while the Obama administration continues to promote the PA as a courageous force for peace even though the record demonstrates they are the principal obstacle to reconciliation.
Recently, Israel has withheld some of the tax revenue it collects for the Palestinians from the PA as a punishment for Abbas’s decision to trash its Oslo Accords commitments by seeking to have the United Nations recognize their independence and to harass the Jewish state in the International Court. So the prospect of being docked more than half a billion is a huge problem for a government that is already bankrupted. But that shouldn’t justify any U.S. actions seeking to overturn the verdicts.
Put simply, the U.S. courts have decided not to let the Palestinians get away with murder. Nor should the administration. Peace will come the moment the Palestinians decided to abandon their opposition to a Jewish state no matter where its borders are drawn. Until then, they should not count on an unending U.S. revenue stream or impunity for their involvement in terror. Justice prevailed in a New York courtroom today. As painful as it may be for him to admit that it is Abbas and not his bête noire Benjamin Netanyahu who is the problem, it’s time for President Obama to stop engaging in denial about Palestinian reality. Support for peace or sympathy for the Palestinians should not cause the administration to seek to obstruct that verdict.
I suppose I shouldn’t but I find this acutely surprising:
…The reaction from the Obama administration to these verdicts is likely to be consternation. The federal government has opposed all efforts on the part of terror victims to get justice in these cases. But the State Department will be particularly motivated to aid the defendants now…
Where has that consternation manifested itself; what is the basis for predicting the likelihood of it; where and how has the federal goverment opposed efforts of the plaintiffs in these cases, and on what rationale? I ask not to challenge Tobin’s assertions but to be better able to understand them.
Tobin can rely on previous cases where the PLO or PA or other Arab entity was protected by the State Dept.
Examlples please that I can chck out.
How hard did you try to inform yourself about the US State and Justice Departments’ efforts to frustrate the efforts of US victims of terrorism backed by the PA and Iran, as well as other enablers like Arab banks, to get justice through US courts? It couldn’t have been very hard, nothing that just a few minutes of Googling wouldn’t prove very helpful with.
I didn’t try. Why not help me out Louis, as Tobin should’ve done, give me a cite or two, why doncha?
Congratulations on the candor (“I didn’t try.”). Now put at least minimal effort into answering your own question and we will congratulate you on the effort once it has been made.
Mr. Tobin is alas working under a severe misconception. (One would like to say that his misconception is understandable; but it really isn’t—not at this stage of the game.)
If this judgement can be appealed, it will be appealed—most likely successfully; and if not, then it will be tied up in the courts—or ignored.
The State Department and/or the White House will explain patiently that such a decision is “not helpful” for the peace process, “which all sides want” (or some similarly fatuous phrase); that it undermines the PA, which organization is “the best chance for peace” (or some other fatuous phrase along those lines); that it humiliates Abbas, that “man of peace” (and one must never, ever humiliate Abbas); that it places an unjust, unbearable, unfair and unjustifiable economic burden on the PA, that institution of peace (not that they’ve checked Abbas’s bank accounts recently), etc. ad nauseum.
Or the State Department and/or the WH may claim that such a judgment is “illegal”; this because it is what they will deem a “political” or “politicized” decision.
Or an illogical decision. Or imprudent. Or counter-product. Or irrelevant.
And Abbas will most likely insist that it is, in fact, just another colonialist, Zionist attempt to destroy the Palestinian people, etc, etc., and therefore not at all binding.
And so the judgment is a dead letter.
But that is not really the issue at hand.
The issue at hand is that according to the current global zeitgest, there is no such thing as Palestinian terrorism. That is, the term is a non-sequitur.
For Palestinian actions cannot be considered “terrorism” as long as they are an “occupied” “people” resisting “occupation”.
(Which, of course, gives the Palestinians every incentive to stay “occupied” until they believe the moment has come when Israel can be destroyed. One must also add that as far as the Palestinians are considered, all of the area between “the river and the sea” is occupied territory. So that anyone expecting an agreement of any kind might want to reconsider…)
No, there is no such thing as “Palestinian” terrorism. Thus, Palestinians can attack and kill Israelis with nary a peep from the so-called international community. They can run them over with cars, stab them with knives, attack them with axes, shoot them with rifles, fire rockets and missiles at them.
All with impunity.
And Israel is not permitted to defend itself from people who are fighting “occupation” and “oppression”.
That is, Israel is not allowed to defend itself at all. Until the “occupation” ends.
But the “occupation” will never end—Arafat’s brilliance permanently on display—until Israel ends.
This should not be at all difficult to discern.
And it doesn’t matter a whit that Abbas and his gang of “freedom fighters” have been doing their very best to ensure that the “occupation” cannot be ended in any shape, manner or form, except via Israel’s destruction.
And it doesn’t matter a whit that as far as Abbas and his gang of thugs are concerned, all of the area “from the River to the sea” is occupied territory.
All this can be ignored by all of those who believe that the creation of a Palestinian state is the cause celebre of our time.
In fact it is ignored.
Just like Israeli proposals leading to the creation of a Palestinian have been ignored.
Abbas cannot possibly accept any peace proposal: that would mean that Palestine is no longer “occupied”.
But “Palestine” will always be “occupied” as long as the State of Israel continues to exist in any form.
Why this simple fact is still a mystery is unfathomable.
Why people still talk of “peace” or a “peace process” is equally incomprehensible.
Unless they all believe, as do the Palestinians, that “peace” means, ultimately, the erasure of the State of Israel.
Well said. Thank you.
BARRY MEISLIN
Very true. Very well put.
Actually, “non sequitur” should be “oxymoron”….