Where’s the Coverage? Congress Acts to Thwart Palestinian-Pay-For-Terror

Fox News Channel has been the only television news network covering the pending Taylor Force Act in Congress (H.R. 1164) aimed at discouraging Palestinian Authority bounty payments to terrorists’ families (Fox News, April 30, 2017).

There’s been scant coverage of the story by newspapers and magazines. The New York Times belatedly got around to covering the Congressional action and then only as a part of another story – May 3 (page A9).

Congressional Democrats seem disinclined to support the bill being pushed by Republicans.

The Sunday, April 30 Fox five-minute report aired at 12:20 p.m.

Fox Website story paralleling the broadcast:

Bill in Congress would pressure Palestinian government to cut off terror-tied payments

Eric Shawn reports: Taylor Force and terror money

Taylor Force was a West Point graduate who served in Afghanistan and Iraq… Taylor, who was 28, was walking along the Mediterranean boardwalk promenade with friends in Tel Aviv, when he was savagely knifed to death on March 8, 2016. His killer was identified as a Palestinian terrorist, 22-year-old Bashar Masalha, who authorities say went on a stabbing spree that also severely wounded ten others before he was shot dead by Israeli police.

[…]

Taylor’s parents say their grief was compounded by the fact that the family of their son’s murderer is making money off his death. The Palestinian Authority spends hundreds of millions of dollars a year paying jihadists and their survivors who were involved in acts of terrorism, and critics say some of those funds come from U.S. taxpayer money that Washington sends to the P.A. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is scheduled to meet with President Trump at the White House on May 3. It is expected that Trump will raise the issue of payments during the visit.

A congressional bill named for Taylor, the Taylor Force Act, would cut off the U.S. aid unless the Palestinian Authority stops the payments.

“Can you imagine growing up in a country where your government will pay you for killing someone else through a terrorist act?” asks South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham incredulously. He is the leading sponsor of the Senate legislation. “If you die as a terrorist, as a ‘martyr,’ your family will get an annual stipend greater than the average Palestinian earns. In this case, the terrorist who killed Taylor Force…was hailed as a hero, was basically given a state funeral, and his family was given money by the state,” Graham says.

“The practice is inconsistent with American values, inconsistent with peace, and inconsistent with decency.”

The House bill is sponsored by Colorado Republican Congressman Doug Lamborn and New York Republican Congressman Lee Zeldin.

“Taylor Force is an American hero,” says Zeldin. “It’s about letting the Force family know that we stand with him and they stand with their son…the United States Congress and President Trump will do the right thing.”The U.S. government gives the Palestinian Authority more than $300 million a year. According to the P.A.’s on-line budget, it shells out that same amount to the families, or about 7 percent of its total budget.

[…]

Taylor’s parents say the payments to Masalha’s family were an additional shock after learning of their son’s fate. Force was golfing when he suddenly received the phone call that no parent ever wants.Since that harrowing moment, the Forces and Taylor’s sister, Kristen, have embarked on a deeply meaningful mission in Taylor’s memory. They are trying to ensure that the incentives to commit terrorism are removed so that there will be no more victims. An important step, they say, is for Congress to pass the Taylor Force Act.

“Our main mission is to spread the word about the legislation,” Force says.“The Taylor Force Act is a good thing. It is not a Democrat thing, it is not a Republican thing, it’s not Conservative or Liberal. It is to get things going in the right direction, the way they should be.

“It is so important that the Taylor Force Act passes, so that other sons and daughters, brothers and sisters aren’t lost in this way,” he says. “It’s just a senseless loss.”

This isn’t the only example of Fox News Channel alone of the television news networks doing its due diligence concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Example where Israel was blamed in circumstances involving the death of several Palestinian Arabs but it was later shown that the actual culprits were Hamas Palestinians – CAMERA report – “CNN’s Wolf Caught in Palestinian Trap.” The same report was provided by The Washington Times with the title, “A Wolf that cried ‘boy.’”

Does the media tend to limit news coverage negatively portraying the Palestinian Arabs in the conflict with the Jewish state? The evidence says yes for most media entities.