Abbas cheers shooting of Americans (but gets a big check from U.S. anyway)

American Jewish and Zionist organizations need to make this issue a top priority.

By Stephen Flatow

As five Americans and three Israelis lie wounded in a Jerusalem hospital, some of them fighting for their lives, the official web site of Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas is praising the terrorist who shot them.

Yes, the same Abbas who will be receiving more than $500 million in aid from the Biden administration this year. Most of the money will be channeled through third parties, but it’s all fungible—it covers bills that Abbas and the PA would have to pay if the U.S. wasn’t paying them.

Abbas is chairman of both the PA and Fatah, which is the largest faction of the PA. Abbas was a leader of Fatah for many years under Yasir Arafat, before succeeding him as chairman.

Here is what Abbas’s official Fatah website had to say about the shooting attack on the Americans and Israelis in Jerusalem:

“Praise to the one whose rifle only speaks against his enemy. Long live our people’s unity and long live the free hero. Praise to the rifle muzzles, our people will fight the occupation with all kinds of resistance.” (Translation courtesy of Palestinian Media Watch)

According to my data base, at least 146 American citizens have been murdered by Palestinian Arab terrorists since the 1968. The international community has largely forgotten them.

Even more forgotten—if that’s possible—are the wounded. At least 203 American citizens have been injured in Palestinian Arab attacks. Very often, their names are not even mentioned in the media coverage until days after.

The Biden administration hosts a web site which offers monetary rewards for information leading to the arrest of terrorists who have harmed Americans overseas. Yet as far as I can tell, it has never paid a reward in connection with Palestinian Arab terrorists who have harmed Americans; there are none listed in the “Success Stories” section of the site (rewardsforjustice.net) .

The Biden administration has an Office of Justice for Victims of Overseas Terrorism. It has never brought about the arrest of a single Palestinian Arab terrorist involved in attacks on Americans—even though the names of many of the terrorists are publicly known, because they serve in the Palestinian security forces or other Palestinian Authority government positions.

The Biden administration recently invited the family of the late Al Jazeera correspondent, Shireen Abu Akleh, to Washington to meet with American officials. Yet Arnold Roth, the father of Malki Roth—murdered by Palestinian Arab terrorists in the Sbarro pizzeria bombing in Jerusalem in 2001—reports that the administration has ignored his repeated requests to meet with U.S. officials in Washington.

The Roth case is particularly troubling because the fugitive terrorist, Ahlam Tamimi, lives openly in Jordan and publicly boasts about her role in the Sbarro massacre. The U.S. has an extradition treaty with Jordan. The Obama administration indicted Tamimi. Yet neither President Obama, nor President Trump, nor President Biden—so far—ever asked Jordan to surrender Tamimi to the U.S. for prosecution.

American Jewish and Zionist organizations need to make this issue a top priority. These organizations constantly urge us to visit Israel. Yet when American citizens who visit Israel are harmed by Palestinian Arab terrorists, they often find they are forgotten.

This must change.

American citizens who have been injured in Palestinian Arab terror attacks should be invited to speak at the conferences of national Jewish organizations and at the Shabbat services of our synagogues. They should be featured on Jewish cable television and radio shows. They should be taken by Jewish leaders to Washington, D.C. to meet with government officials.

The world must be shown that we will never be silent until justice is done.

Stephen M. Flatow is an attorney and the father of Alisa Flatow, who was murdered in an Iranian-sponsored Palestinian terrorist attack in 1995. He is the author of “A Father’s Story: My Fight for Justice Against Iranian Terrorism.”

Biden AdministrationPalestinian AuthorityPalestinian terrorPalestinian terror fundingTerror VictimsUS Mideast policy