After jet-setting to Israel to lecture citizens of the Jewish State about how they needed to empathize more with Palestinians who elect Hamas and back Israeli extinction, President Obama demonstrated what empathy means to him: the State Department has announced that it will unblock $500 million in aid to the Palestinian Authority. Congress froze funding for the Palestinian Authority just a few months ago in the aftermath of the PA’s attempt to unilaterally declare statehood via the United Nations.
Despite President Obama’s requests to PA President Mahmoud Abbas not to go to the International Criminal Court to seek sanctions against Israel, Abbas has vowed to do so.
Coincidentally, in the days leading up to Obama’s release of funds, The New York Times reported leaked documents suggesting that Abbas is interested in restarting the so-called peace process. “[Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu] can pledge to you secretly that he will stop settlement activities during the period of negotiations,” said a talking point the Times somehow got from Abbas.
Ben Shapiro is Editor-At-Large of Breitbart News and author of the book “Bullies: How the Left’s Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences America” (Threshold Editions, January 8, 2013).