Ted Yoho: Stop Aid to Palestinian Authority Until it Cracks Down on Terrorism

From his perch on the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, U.S. Rep. Ted Yoho, R-Fla., unveiled a proposal to cut off federal foreign aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA) until it ends ties with terrorists. Introducing the Foreign Assistance Accountability Act of 2014, Yoho ripped the PA for paying salaries to terrorists and for having ties to groups like Hamas.

When the U.S. provides foreign aid, we give it in good faith that it will be used to better the situation for which it is being used, Yoho said on Thursday. As a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, I have learned that the foreign aid the U.S. was sending to the PA had the potential, as money is fungible, to be used to pay a monthly salary to Palestinians imprisoned in Israel for security and terror-related offenses; salaries that go to more than 4,500 prisoners (as of December 2012) who have committed acts of terror -- acts of terror that have killed at least 54 U.S. citizens since 1993 and injured another 83 Americans.

"It is absurd that the United States remains one of the largest donors to the PA while this heinous practice remains on the books, Yoho added. My bill will stop all U.S. foreign aid to the Palestinian Authority until they stop paying the salaries of convicted terrorists and sever ties with terrorist organizations such as Hamas an organization that in the most recent war with Israel placed missile sites near schools so as to use human shields as they fired missiles into civilian populations. This is unacceptable and needs to be stopped.