A Conversation with Itamar Marcus of Palestinian Media Watch

Itamar Marcus, director of Palestinian Media Watch, stopped by the Breitbart News offices recently to share some of what his organization has been doing. You might recall PalWatch.org’s work from such classics as “Farfur,” the Mickey Mouse-like character that Hamas used to teach Palestinian children to hate Jews and love war with Israel. (Farfur was killed, alas–no, martyred–by Israel when he refused to sell his land.)

PalWatch.org also follows much more serious stuff–such as a speech delivered last week in the name of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, declaring all of Israel to be “occupied Palestinian land.” It is an odd statement to make, considering that the Palestinians are now supposed to be talking peace with Israel. Perhaps Abbas hopes he can get away with it, out of sight. Thanks to PalWatch.org, he rarely does.

Marcus pointed out that the U.S. has a way to stop Palestinian incitement against Jews and Israel–which it is supposed to do under existing agreements: namely, it can cut off general funding to the Palestinians. That is essentially what happened after 2004, when legislation was passed preventing Congress from funding the Palestinian Authority unless certain conditions were met–or unless the president exercised a waiver.

President George W. Bush began exercising that waiver at the end of his second term, at the outset of the Annapolis peace process. President Barack Obama has allowed funding through to the Palestinian Authority every year, including this year. But Palwatch.org has had better luck elsewhere, including with the newly-elected Norwegian government, which looks set to stop funding official Palestinian media incitement.

We’ll look forward to more of PalWatch.org’s rather grim work. Hopefully the message will start to get through. Though, with Secretary of State John Kerry warning Israel of a “third intifada” if it does not make additional concessions to the Palestinians (as if that is the problem in the peace process), perhaps the State Department and the White House simply do not care if the U.S. taxpayer is subsidizing hatred.