PAY FOR SLAY: Biden Admin Looks to Restart Controversial Palestinian Aid

Today on Sekulow, the Biden administration looks to restart a controversial Palestinian aid, despite Pay to Slay and the Taylor Force Act. Mike Pompeo joins us live to discuss. Live from Washington, DC, Jay Sekulow live. Phone lines are open for your questions right now. Call 1-800-684-3110.

That's 1-800-684-3110. And now your host, Jordan Sekulow. Welcome to Sekulow. So as we continue looking at these different moves the Biden administration's trying to make, even those that on its face appear to violate the law of the United States, clear law, like the Taylor Force Act.

Let me rewind you. If you're a newer listener to the broadcast in the last couple of years, you might not know what I'm talking about when I say Taylor Force Act. The Taylor Force Act blocks the U.S. funding to go directly to the Palestinian Authority until it changes its Pay for Slay program. The Pay for Slay policy is, in essence, any Palestinian who carries out an attack against any Israeli. Then their families receive money and compensation based on if they were killed or how long they go to prison or how brutal the attack was. But in this specific instance, there was an American attacked. He was former military, but he was no longer in the military. He was on a school trip to Israel. And yet the Palestinian Authority treated the attacker's family.

He was the attacker. The terrorist was killed after killing Taylor Force. But then this family received the Pay for Slay money. Pay for Slay runs out of the PLO's office in Washington, D.C., which was shut down by the Trump administration.

But the Biden administration wants to reopen. So in 2018, this law passed that says we're not going to directly fund the Palestinian Authority at all. Does that mean no human funding will get to the Palestinian people when it comes to water, hospitals, needs that they may have? No, it's just we're not going to let the Palestinian Authority have these funds. This actual Pay for Slay policy is on the books. It is part of the law of the Palestinian Authority.

It is actually inside their law. So it's something they could remove that would take away the barrier for them receiving direct funding. But the Biden administration, Harry, is looking at a way to work around this. We're going to talk to Mike Pompeo. He's got a brand new piece up at ACLJ.org. And his co-author is Stuart Force. This is up now at ACLJ.org.

And Stuart Force is the father of Taylor Force, who was killed by a Palestinian terrorist that was then family received all this money, Pay for Slay money. But the Biden administration, Harry, is looking at a workaround. Absolutely. So one of the things that we should keep in mind is we should put all of this in context. And so Senator Mike Lee has famously said that House Bill H.R.

1 was written by the devil himself. One wonders what he would say about the Biden administration's decision to subsidize terrorism, in effect, as the administration plans to restart Palestinian aid as payments to Palestinian terrorists continue to flow. To be clear, the Biden administration, which has turned a blind eye to the possibility that terrorists will enter our southern border, and he's turned a blind eye to the fact that untested migrants may indeed spread COVID on American streets. Now, the Biden administration plans to resume taxpayer aid to the Palestinians, even though the Palestinian government continues to use money to pay convicted terrorists. This approach contravenes legislative and U.S. policy. And I hope hopefully we can find a way to show that it is completely illegal. We take your phone calls 1-800-684-3110.

That's 1-800-684-3110. The Biden administration, much like with Iran, but now with the Palestinian authority, looking at ways to use your money, your taxpayer money, to go to an organization, a Palestinian authority, which has a law codified to pay terrorists, and they could use those funds. So the U.S. said no, but the Biden administration wants to get that money flowing again.

They're looking for all these workarounds. Folks, we have got to fight back. ACLJ.org, double the impact your donation, matching challenge month of March.

We'll be right back. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad, whether it's defending religious freedom, protecting those who are persecuted for their faith. I'm covering corruption in the Washington bureaucracy and fighting to protect life in the courts and in Congress. The ACLJ would not be able to do any of this without your support.

For that, we are grateful. Now there's an opportunity for you to help in a unique way. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's matching challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20.

A $50 gift becomes 100. This is a critical time for the ACLJ. The work we do simply would not occur without your generous support.

Take part in our matching challenge today. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family. Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected is there any hope for that culture to survive. And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free, powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

It's called Mission Life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later, the play on parenthood's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life.

Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org. Welcome back to Sekulow. So just to kind of give you an idea, the Palestinian Authority employs some 550 people in its pay for slave bureaucracies because it's part of Palestinian law, Palestinian Authority law. These bonus payments for Israeli Arabs and Arabs who take carryout attacks on Israelis, yet Taylor Force was not Israeli, he's not Jewish, but they still praised his attacker and terrorist who killed him as a martyr.

So they have 550 people working in this office. When you go to the percent of their budget, over 7% of the Palestinian Authority's budget, $350 million goes to the pay for slave program. Only $220 million go for non-terrorist welfare programs. So they spend more money paying families of terrorists than they do on trying to create a better life for their own people. We're going to talk about all of this with former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, ACLJ's Senior Counsel for Global Affairs, who wrote the new piece up at ACLJ.org about the Biden administration looking for a workaround. How ridiculous is the workaround?

I mean, take a listen. Our phone calls, our number is 1-800-684-3110. If you want to talk to us on air, that's 1-800-684-3110. But this is what the Palestinian Authority is proposing. The Biden administration claims that renewed aid for the Palestinian people won't violate the Taylor Force Act, which bars aid programs that directly benefit the Palestinian Authority. And the Palestinian Authority believes it can satisfy the administration by making terrorist compensation, quote, needs-based. So it'll be more like if someone passed away in your family and you needed some kind of welfare or you needed assistance. But again, they would be doing it because they promoted these acts of terror.

The only reason the family would be eligible for this needs-based support is because they were supporting terrorism. We've got a phone call coming in from Israel. Line 2, Lou. Lou, welcome to Sekulow. You're on the air.

Yes, thank you for taking my call. I just want to clarify a couple of items about the pay-for-slave program. I have a construction company here. I employ about 40 Palestinian Arabs and I can tell you firsthand from what Dave told me that their government, Abbas and his henchmen, are the most corrupt people in the world. When aid is given to them, whether it's USA, European aid, and the Europeans are the worst. It goes either right into their pockets, which, you know, Arafat was worth billions and Abbas is worth billions, and otherwise it goes to the pay-for-slave program. And it's determined, I mean, it's completely illegal because let's say if, and I have an employee who unfortunately his nephew was a terrorist and he hurt a couple of Israelis and he only got a three-year sentence. He didn't kill them. He only got about 2,000 shekels a month. On the other hand, he has a buddy, another terrorist, who actually killed. And this is the one, if you remember the situation in Itamar where he killed the Fogle family. Yes.

I mean, that family is getting something like 12,000 shekels a month. Yeah. And so this is completely illegal. And could you explain a little bit more about the Taylor Force Act? Yeah.

Go ahead. Yeah. So what the US did, Lou, is say, because this is a codified program, it's not something that PA hides. Like you said, this is codified in their law and there's different levels of funding depending on different levels of attacks and they use a significant amount of their budget for it. The US finally said, we're no longer going to fund the PA directly. 2018, it's called the Taylor Force Act after an American student was killed by one of these terrorists who was incentivized to carry out the attack because of the Pay for Slay program. So the illegality of it is clear. You cannot, whether you govern a territory or you are any kind of government entity whatsoever, have a program that incentivizes killing innocent individuals.

And that is exactly what happened. But it took until 2018 with the Taylor Force Act where the US said, we're no longer going to fund the Abbas PA directly. Are we still going to try to provide some welfare to the Palestinian people in need? Yes, but we're going to go around the PA. We're not going to fund the PA directly. We're not going to let them decide how to use the funds because as we talked about, 7% of their budget, $350 million goes to the Pay for Slay program and has 550 employees. Only $220 million of their budget goes to non-terrorist welfare programs.

So most of it goes to terrorists and their family welfare programs. So the US said no, but now the Biden administration fan is looking for a way. Listen to the State Department spokesperson, Ned Price. He's asked about re-engaging with the Palestinians.

Mike Pompeo will be joining us in the next segment, but here's the current State Department spokesperson, Ned Price, on how the Biden administration is looking at re-engaging BITE 17. MR PRICE As part of that, we are reviewing the diplomatic presence that you alluded to. We are ensuring that it will enable us to fully conduct our complete range of activities, including engagement with the Palestinian people, with the Palestinian authorities, public diplomacy assistance, diplomatic reporting. We've talked about our commitment to – for funding for Palestinians, including Palestinian refugees. We are committed to all of that. I think you will see concrete manifestations of that going forward.

MR PRICE So there you go, Thanh. I mean, they're doing anything they can, commitment to funding the Palestinians. That's what they said right there. Now, they're going to have to do a workaround because there's an existing law that bars them from giving any aid directly to the Palestinian Authority. So the Palestinian Authority is looking at changing their law to say, well, it's now going to be needs-based for families, so it'll be part of their regular welfare program. But they'll still have pay-for-slay, I guess, on the books.

MR PRICE Yeah, I mean, a couple of things here, Jordan. First of all, I think the United States would have to directly ignore the law, to be quite honest with you, to do this. Look, the Palestinians can change their law however they want, but if they don't cease the pay-for-slay program, the U.S. law, Jordan, says that the Secretary of State must certify that these kind of payments have stopped. So whether they're official sanctioned payments or not, that would trigger the law. I would tell you two things, Jordan.

First of all, this is not complicated. I mean, of course it's the correct policy for the United States to not fund governments or governmental entities, however you feel about the Palestinian administration, if they are engaging in this type of behavior, if they're paying for the slaughter of Americans and Israelis. You know, Jordan, I'm not so sure we should be funding the Palestinian authority anyway. I really don't think we should.

But this should be something that unifies everyone. And, you know, the comment that Ned Price, the State Department spokesperson, made, they're actually trying to do the same thing in letting the PLO open that facility in Washington, D.C. The federal law there, Jordan, says that the Palestinians would owe more than $600 million if they were to open that facility.

And that's not just a suggestion. That is federal law. And the Biden administration is looking to get around that as well. So the two things here, I mean, it's one a policy question. The Trump policy was correct on this.

The other one is just a matter of federal law, Jordan. They cannot do this without changing the law. But it looks like they're going to try anyway. Yeah, they're going to try workarounds. I mean, we're actually looking right now, working with our Freedom of Information Act team, our FOIA team, to start already looking at FOIA documents about the State Department, about how they intend to work around the Taylor Force Act.

How do they intend to do this? Because, Harry, I don't think this is an easy repeal at the congressional level. This is not an easy sell to the American people. This is a law that is very bipartisan. There's a lot of bipartisan support for Israel and against terrorist attacks. And it also protects American citizens.

I mean, in a sense, because of Taylor Force and the horrendous situation there. So it honors an American citizen, this specific act. So they're going to look for workarounds.

It looks like the Palestinians are willing to play ball on that. I think that's precisely correct. So first, we should note that it is clear beyond question that money is fungible. That's number two.

So I'm sorry, number one. Number two, accounting tends to be fungible. And I think the Biden State Department is likely to engage in a craven capitulation to creative accounting to allow aid to flow to the Palestinians. And so I think Thanh is precisely correct. We should not be aiding the Palestinian authority whatsoever.

Most of those funds flow into Western banks in Paris, New York City, and in London. They do not help the Palestinian people. So instead, the Palestinian authority in some sense is a state sponsored, and I use that in quotes, a state sponsor of terror.

And so we should not, we should withdraw all of our support for the Palestinian authority. There is a great new piece of exclusive to ACLJ.org by Mike Pompeo, and by Stuart Force, Taylor Force's father, check that at ACLJ.org. Mike Pompeo joins us in the next segment live. Support the work of the ACLJ in our matching challenge month of March. Donate online at ACLJ.org. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected, is there any hope for that culture to survive. And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

It's called Mission Life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later, Planned Parenthood's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life. Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. At the American Center for Law and Justice we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad. Whether it's defending religious freedom, protecting those who are persecuted for their faith, uncovering corruption in the Washington bureaucracy, and fighting to protect life in the courts and in Congress, the ACLJ would not be able to do any of this without your support.

For that we are grateful. Now there's an opportunity for you to help in a unique way. For a limited time you can participate in the ACLJ's Matching Challenge. For every dollar you donate it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20.

A $50 gift becomes $100. This is a critical time for the ACLJ. The work we do simply would not occur without your generous support. Take part in our Matching Challenge today. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family.

Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. Folks, if you're watching, share this with your friends and family now. Our Senior Council for Global Affairs, Mike Pompeo, joining us today by phone. He's got a new piece up along with, he's co-written with Stuart Force, the father of Taylor Force, up at ACLJ.org.

So you know where it is and we've tweeted it out and gotten it on social media. So is Secretary Pompeo. Is the Biden administration planning on violating the Taylor Force Act? Now we've been explaining that to you folks, but the first question I had for Secretary Pompeo goes back to what we were discussing earlier this week, which was this issue that under his leadership of the State Department, the United States declared that China was engaged in genocide with its actions against the Uyghur Muslim minority in Western China. And yesterday, Secretary Pompeo, we don't have a name to it yet, but the Biden administration went on the record from the White House team acknowledging that genocide. So I mean, maybe there is a step closer to at least acknowledging what the Chinese are doing. Well, Jordan, thanks.

Look, I'm happy to hear that. I hope they'll do this publicly. I hope they'll do it often. I hope they'll address it with the Chinese Communist Party leadership every time they meet. The things that are taking place to these people. Yesterday, I met with three folks in my office, one of whom's mother was abducted, is now serving a 20-year sentence in jail in Western China.

It was horrific. It was so sad to be with this woman's daughter yesterday with the horrors that are taking place that are real, their personal right. This is now impacting people who are activists here in the United States.

We have to be serious. The Biden administration needs to confront the Chinese about it and ultimately build out a global coalition to impose real costs until the Chinese Communist Party changes its ways. Again, I just want to update people on that. The Biden White House is not shying away from the word genocide. Whether or not that means they're going to make a huge push at the international level, whether they build that coalition we talked about with Secretary Pompeo on the Olympics, that remains to be seen. But there is some movement since we discussed with the Secretary earlier this week.

Now, I want to get right to the new piece you've got up on the Taylor Force Act. I just want, in your own words, because we talked about pay-for-slay. I think this can be sometimes, when this law was going through in 2018, we've certainly talked about it a lot in our broadcast, done a lot of work on it at the ACLJ and through our office in Israel. But it's hard for people to imagine, Secretary Pompeo, that the Palestinian Authority has a pay-for-slay program codified in their law.

That's right. The Palestinian Authority has, for years, made it their law and their policy that someone who engaged in activity that resulted in the death or serious injury of an Israeli, they would pay them. They would pay their family. They would pay them a stipend.

They would give them retirement benefits. All the things, and this is just the most outrageous kind of thing to reward people for taking actions against Israeli citizens. The administration has indicated that they may go back to providing resources to the Palestinian Authority, the very leadership inside of the West Bank that is doing this pay-for-slay program. In some ways, it's as if they are laundering money for terrorists. The Palestinian Authority is engaged in terrorist activity. Hamas is closely associated with this as well. Now, it appears that the United States government may well give the Palestinian Authority resources and money. The Trump administration stopped this. We stopped it cold. It was the right thing to do. And the Taylor Force Act requires this by law, and I hope the Biden administration won't go back to that failed set of policies.

In Taylor Force, you wrote the piece up at aclj.org with Stewart Force. His son, who served in the military but was no longer in the military, was just a tourist in Israel. He wasn't Israeli. He wasn't Jewish. He was killed by a Palestinian terrorist.

His name was Taylor Force. You wrote the piece with Stewart Force, his father, and that terrorist was still praised as a martyr because he was killed, and that family receives thousands of dollars. And up until the Taylor Force Act, when the U.S. was just sending money to the Palestinian Authority, they were diverting. I mean, you talk about it in your piece, more money to their Pay for Slay program than to their welfare programs for Palestinian people.

Yeah, the amount of money is absolutely staggering. It was great to write this. I wrote this along with Sandra Gerber, who's been deeply involved in this issue for an awfully long time, as well as the father of Force, who, of course, went to the same college that day.

It was a West Point graduate. This is a perfect example of an administration not understanding that if you preemptively reward the Palestinian Authority by granting them U.S. taxpayer funds, while they are still underwriting these terrorists who prey on Israelis, prey on American citizens who are in Israel, you're doing an enormous disservice. And I hope the administration won't go back to that, but they are talking about it.

There are those on the far left, Elon Omar and others, who think that this makes sense. It's not good for America. It's not good for people who are in Israel. It's certainly not good for the Israelis. It's also the wrong thing to do for the Palestinian people.

They should not be encouraged or rewarded for engaging in this terrorist behavior. I see two actions, Secretary Pompeo, that, again, the Biden administration is looking at. One is how to reopen the PLO office in D.C. without them having to pay upwards of $600 million in fines. And then, second, how to get money to the Palestinian Authority directly without violating the Taylor Force Act directly. And I don't see ways around either of those, but we now know from the Biden team, we're looking at FOIA work actually right now, that they are actively working with the Palestinians on workarounds.

Not to say, get rid of pay for sleigh, but how we can work around so we can get you more money, which to me is really troubling. It's very troubling. There's no way to circumvent these laws. The laws are very clear. By the way, they were passed in a bipartisan way. This is the thing that really surprised me about what the administration is doing.

It suggests that they are truly appealing to the left-most part of the party because when Taylor Force was passed, it was deeply bipartisan. Everybody understood it was the right thing. Look, our administration was very clear to the Palestinian leadership. We want the people of Palestine to have a better life, the people who are living in the West Bank to have a better life, but we're not going to allow American taxpayer money to go to those who continue to underwrite terror. It was our policy with Iran and it was our policy across the world. And sadly, this administration appears to be trying to find some loophole, which I do not believe exists, but to find some loophole to circumvent this unambiguous law, which is the right policy as well.

You know what is, to me, I think when we look at this, and again, I'm so glad that we've got this piece up too that walks people through this. It's written by Secretary Pompeo. It's exclusive to the ACLJ.

It's the piece's title. It's right on the homepage of ACLJ.org. Is the Biden administration planning on violating the Taylor Force Act? And I look at one of the ways the PA believes it can satisfy the administration, this is from the piece, is by making terrorist compensation, quote, needs-based. So they're going to toss it, Secretary Pompeo, I guess, into the general welfare, except for the only reason these families need this assistance is because the government there, the governing entity there, the policy authority, was encouraging a family member to go and possibly lose their life as a terrorist to kill an Israeli or even an American like Taylor Force. So I mean, this is to me, if that's the workaround and the Biden administration accepts that, I feel like America, we're paying blood money.

It's deeply cynical. It doesn't comport with the law. I hope that once cooler heads prevail inside the administration, they'll see that it doesn't, and they'll abide by the Taylor Force Act and get the policy right. This isn't going to further Palestinian peace with Israel.

This will only undermine the capacity to extend what we did with the Abraham Accords and build out a more peaceful, stable Middle East. The peace is up at ACLJ.org by Secretary Pompeo. As always, it's great to have you, Secretary.

Thanks for joining us. Folks, support the work of the ACLJ. Double the impact your donation at ACLJ.org the entire month of March.

We'll be right back. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's Matching Challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20.

A $50 gift becomes $100. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family. Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. Live from Washington, D.C., Jay Sekulow Live. And now, your host, Jordan Sekulow.

Welcome back to Sekulow. What an interview that was to get Secretary Pompeo, our senior advisor, senior counsel for global affairs, on with us to talk about the Taylor Force Act and the fact that the Biden administration is looking for a workaround on this. Now, we've also got a new update coming later in the broadcast on a big religious liberty win out of Georgia University. We'll get to that later on in the broadcast.

But I do want to take some phone calls now. Becky in Texas, online one. Hey, Becky.

Welcome to Sekulow. Hey, Jordan. So, I'm wondering, what does the Biden administration have to gain from strengthening their relationship with the Palestinian Authority? Basically, like, what's their overall agenda, that hidden agenda, you know, that we need to be made aware of?

So, I think it's what Rick Grenell talks about a lot. I mean, another one of our senior advisors who came out of acting director of national intelligence. I mean, so, I mean, I think that this all flows with it, is that they want to get back to the way things were previously, not just under the Biden administration, but under the Bush years and under the previous administration. Basically, since there's been an Israeli-Palestinian crisis, or if you want to call it that, is that they want to have a direct relationship with the Palestinians.

They need to work around from these laws. They want the Palestinians to be able to reopen up their offices. They want to re-legitimize the Palestinians and make that, which I think is very dangerous.

It goes back to John Kerry, who's still a part of this administration, again. They want to make the Palestinians the center point in anything that happens in the Middle East. And, of course, I mean, they've got the Iran issues, where they want to appease Iran, but they want to go back to, instead of the Abraham Accords, which said, we can handle two things at once. You could still make peace with Israel, do business with Israel, and still hope to one day get to a Palestinian agreement. And maybe that will help, actually, put pressure on the Palestinians to knock off the terrorism so they can get peace for their people. But they want to go back to that old way of thinking, Thanh, which is that the Palestinian issue is the number one issue, and you ignore everything else. Well, it's an appeasement strategy, plain and simple. And I think the comparison with the Iran situation is a good one, Jordan, because quite frankly, it's the same posture that's taken. It's the idea that American strength in the world is not a good thing, that it doesn't afford maximum freedom, that it doesn't afford the flourishing of human society, when all the evidence says the opposite, Jordan. If we're going to try to appease and if we're going to try to cater to evil, essentially, in many of these locations, it is not going to be the people that are going to flourish. It's going to be the governments that are providing oppression. But look, that's just a fundamentally different view of how to engage foreign policy.

Now, I think it has been conclusively found to be lacking, but it shouldn't be any surprise that the same cast of characters that implemented it last time around will try to implement it again. And Jordan, I would just maybe give you one follow-up from the conversation you had with Secretary Pompeo. He briefly mentioned congressional support from the likes of Ilhan Omar. But I really think that this is a second layer of pressure that we need to put on because, yes, it's entirely the Biden administration's fault here. There is a law that they must follow that they are now refusing to follow. But Jordan, I really think that bipartisan support in the Congress ought to come back and say, no, you won't.

We still have the power of the purse. We said once that you couldn't do this in both of these accounts, we're going to say it again. And by the way, if you try to go around us, we're just going to pull that account down altogether.

We're not going to give you the money in the first place to choose to dispense. So this is the Biden administration's fault, Jordan, but that bipartisan coalition in Congress, they need to hear from us as well. You know, I think, again, as folks as we go into the next segment, too, as well, this is something we've got to fight back on.

We're going to do so at the ACLJ. We are, again, it's bad policy. There's laws in place to protect from that bad policy, but we're going to put FOIAs in to see how they're trying to work around the laws. This is an administration that they're just dying to get money into the hands of the Palestinian authority.

It's got to pay for sleigh. Think about that program codified in their law. You know, just like how they're rushing back to try to figure out how to get the Iranians, back to sipping tea with them in Geneva. It's the same idea. It's the same failed policies.

And we know that because the Abraham Accords show that these policies of the past failed. But this is what they're committed to. We're committed to putting roadblocks in the way. And as Secretary Pompeo said, hopefully awaken him to the idea that there's no work around this. You would be violating the law.

You can't work around this bipartisan piece of legislation. We'll be right back on Sekulow. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad. Whether it's defending religious freedom, protecting those who are persecuted for their faith, uncovering corruption in the Washington bureaucracy, and fighting to protect life in the courts and in Congress, the ACLJ would not be able to do any of this without your support.

For that, we are grateful. Now there's an opportunity for you to help in a unique way. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's Matching Challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20.

A $50 gift becomes $100. This is a critical time for the ACLJ. The work we do simply would not occur without your generous support.

Take part in our Matching Challenge today. You can make a difference in the work we do protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family. Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected is there any hope for that culture to survive. And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free, powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

It's called Mission Life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later, the play on parenthood's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life. Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift.

All right, welcome back to Secula. Let me take some more of your phone calls. 1-800-684-3110. I want to get to those phone calls on the Palestinian Authority issue and the Taylor Force Act. Check out the new blog up, a new piece up by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Along with one of the co-authors of that piece is Stuart Force, the father of the slain American killed by a Palestinian terrorist, Taylor Force, who the law is named after, the Taylor Force Act. So again, by bringing these experts into the ACLJ, people served as Secretary of State and CIA directors, members of Congress, people served as acting directors of National Intelligence Ambassadors to Germany, we're able to bring you content not only on the air, but written content as well that you can share and to understand foreign policy issues as they are happening in Washington, D.C. from the top experts. And we're bringing them inside, not just to join as guests on our broadcast, but to be part of the ACLJ team. So right before I go to the calls, let me just encourage you, during this month of March, we have a matching challenge. Whatever you're able to donate online is effectively doubled. You double the impact of your donation.

So what does it mean? We have a group of donors, they come to us, they say we will match every donation that comes through in the month of March. So you go now to ACLJ.org if you're financially able and donate online and you double your impact. And it's how we can bring on Mike Pompeo to the ACLJ team. It's how we can bring Rick Grenell on to the ACLJ team. And of course, do all the other work that we do and including this broadcast every single day, Monday through Friday, with all the latest news and analysis and all that goes into that. So donate today at ACLJ.org because it's a great month because you double the impact of your donation. Let's go back to the phones. Alan in New York online for, hey Alan, welcome to Sekulow.

Gentlemen, it's an absolute pleasure. Just real quickly, and this is a little bit of a follow-up to things you've already said as well as your previous callers. It's trying to get to the motivation of the Biden administration. You're well aware of a Palestinian media watch that cites everything coming out of the Palestinian authority. So between everything we know about their financial corruption, between everyone knowing what their agenda is, the Palestinian leaders tell you that all of Israel has occupied Palestine.

So what could possibly motivate? How can the Biden administration, how can Jen Psaki even say that there is something that benefits the U.S. by continuing the relationship with them when they've already told us in every possible way they can that they don't support peace, that they will continue to support violence, and that Israel as a Jewish state will never exist as long as the Palestinians have one last breath in them. I want you to listen to the acting U.S. envoy to the U.N. Security Council. This is from the Biden administration, Richard Mills, because he answers it for you. We might not like his answer.

And then we'll break down what he says by 21. The Biden administration will restore credible U.S. engagement with Palestinians as well as Israelis. This will involve renewing U.S. relations with the Palestinian leadership and Palestinian people, relations which have atrophied over the last four years. President Biden has been clear in his intent to restore U.S. assistance programs that support economic development and humanitarian aid for the Palestinian people and to take steps to reopen diplomatic missions that were closed by the last U.S. administration.

Okay, so I want to break that down for you. One, Harry, what is credible U.S. engagement with the Israelis? That bothers me, but let's stick with the Palestinians for a second. Credible U.S. engagement with the Palestinians that has atrophied, atrophied so it was wasted away, it was destroyed by the past administration because the past administration was based off a U.S. law passed by Congress, bipartisan, that said we can't work with you directly with the funding. We're going to shut down your offices that direct that funding as well because you have a pay for slave program, a payment program to terrorists to kill civilians and one of those civilians happened to be an American citizen that was killed. So either you change the law there or you get no more money. And yet they're saying it was like the Trump administration did this on their own. That's not true. Congress did this.

Absolutely. So I think most Americans appreciate what Israel has done for the Middle East. Israel stands for the rule of law. Israel stands for democracy. Israel stands for a constitutional republic. But it's important to note that hatred of Israel is a motivating emotion for global elites.

It has become, if you will, the furniture of educated minds in the United States and Europe. So restoring relationships with the corrupt government of Palestine is one way that these elites can send a message to the Trump administration and to the American people who support Israel. So now we have, if you will, a convention of globalists who are supporting the restoration of relationships with Iran and China and other human rights violators. And they now want to restore, for instance, the Iranian nuclear accord, even though there is no evidence whatsoever that that benefits either the American people or advances peace in the Middle East. So I think at the end of the day, the elites that occupy positions of power within the Biden administration are committed to one thing, weakening our ties with Israel. I think that is, at the end of the day, plain and simple, their objective. And one way of weakening ties with Israel is by restoring relationships with terrorists or with a governmental-type organization such as the Palestinian Authority that support terrorism. All right, folks, let me take the final call on this.

And then I want to start. Well, let me get Thanh's reaction. Thanh, Congress has an oversight role here because, really, because they wrote the law. It was signed into law. This is not something the Biden administration can't just overlook this. They can't—I think their argument that we'll just put this into a general needs-based program, but if they don't take Pay for Slay off the books, they shouldn't be able to open up their consulates or the PLO's offices in D.C. and in the U.S. without paying the fine, over $600 million, which they don't have the money to do, and they shouldn't be able to get direct funding. And by the way, Thanh, I think for people wondering about humanitarian assistance, let's be clear. The Taylor Force Act says we will get humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people. We're just not going to trust the money going through the Palestinian Authority. Yeah, we won't let the people that are paying terrorists to kill Americans and Israelis to administer that humanitarian—those dollars, Jordan, because we don't believe that they will actually be spent on humanitarian dollars.

Look, the Palestinians are doing this out in the open, Jordan, and I think we need to say this very clearly. On both of these issues that we've talked about today, on the Pay for Slay program, they literally have 550 people working in that department. It is not something that is hidden.

They openly admit it. They have not even made any attempt to change that program. So there's no way in the world that Secretary Blinken could certify that that program has ceased, which is what the federal law requires in order to restore funding. So any kind of a workaround that they're trying on that one just should fall, Jordan, on very deaf ears. And then on the second point, the anti-terror law that was passed a couple of years ago under the Trump administration that said that they can't open an office in Washington, D.C., unless they will pay these more than $600 million in fines.

Jordan, the Palestinians openly admit that they can't afford that. So they openly admit that they will not open this office, at least not out in the open, unless those fines would not apply. So both of these things they have acknowledged, they have conceded that they're happening, and they haven't walked away from. So from the administration's point of view, there is no workaround that would comply with the law. And when it comes to federal statute, you talk about congressional oversight, Jordan, I really think the Article 1 branch here, in a bipartisan fashion, needs to be jealous about what they did, what they spoke on. And Secretary Pompeo mentioned this, but in a bipartisan fashion, by the way, largely because a vast majority of bipartisan Americans support this policy, they enacted both of these provisions, Jordan. And I really think that Congress should come back and say, no, we absolutely meant it. And while we don't agree that there's any kind of a work around in current law, we're going to say it again, Jordan, in this year's funding bill, we're going to actually pull those dollars down completely if you don't comply. I think that kind of congressional jealousy is very appropriate here. Yeah, so let me take this call, the final call on Taylor Force Act. When we come back, a religious liberty victory, which we're always fighting for at the ACLJ. So again, we'll take this final call when we come back.

So Mike, hang on the line. I want to answer your question because you have a good question about Taylor Force. When we talk about this, we never want to forget who Taylor Force is because his father is a co-author of the piece that's up exclusively for ACLJ at ACLJ.org. He's a co-author with Secretary Pompeo. Check that piece out, share it with your friends and family on social media so they know what the Biden administration is trying to do, which would dishonor this young man's life, Taylor Force's life. He didn't deserve to die. He wasn't on the battlefield.

He was a tourist in a school program. We'll tell you more about what happened in that incident when we come back and another big religious liberty win. As always, support the work at ACLJ, but this is a great month to do it financially because you can double your impact. Be part of our matching challenge at ACLJ.org. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected is there any hope for that culture to survive. And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free, powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

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I want to get right to the phones. We're talking about how the Biden administration is trying to get money directly to the Palestinian Authority, though they have not done what the U.S. law has stated, which is that you must get rid of the pay for slave program as part of your law, stop paying terrorist families for carrying out terrorist attacks against Israelis or Americans or people visiting Israel. If you don't do that, we're not going to get you any funding directly. We're going to go around you to fund people with humanitarian programs.

We're not going to let you carry out those funds. But the Biden administration, of course, they want to cozy up to Abbas, just like they want to cozy up to the Iranians. They want to have their lunches and their meetings at the United Nations in Geneva and COVID. With everybody getting vaccinated, they can see that long term they can share espresso and a meal in Geneva and discuss these issues with terrorists, by the way. But that's what they want to get back to.

They really want to get back to that idea. But Mike's got a great question on Line 1 calling from Missouri. Hey, Mike, welcome to Sekulow.

Hey, guys, nice to talk with you again. Yeah, this Taylor Force, if he was in the Army and then got out, he's traveling over there and they take him out like that. How do they get that kind of intel and where do they get it and why was he singled out? Well, he wasn't singled out.

So let me take you back to what happened. It was in 2016. There was a terrorist attack by a Palestinian. It was a knife attack in Tel Aviv, where you see a lot of people that if you were traveling to Israel as a student, a tourist, you'd likely go through Tel Aviv, which is a very different place than, let's say, Jerusalem, very different kind of city. The attack actually, Mike, injured 11 people. The terrorist was killed as well. So it's not clear that this attacker knew that he was doing anything more than killing, going after and stabbing, and ultimately leading to 11 people being injured and Taylor Force being killed, a group of Americans.

That's kind of what I think the target was. And then that attacker knew his family would benefit regarding how brutal the attack was, if he killed someone, and if he was ultimately killed, his family back in the Palestinian territories would make more money because of that. It's incentivized terrorism. And so, again, it's also, I think, using some of the people in the most vulnerable situations, economic situations to say, well, if you get a family member to go out and kill some people, you're going to put your family in a better financial spot. So you may die, but at least you'll die knowing that they'll be in a better financial position. It's just a horrendous reasoning and logic, right?

It's totally outside of how we would ever think that this is okay. So this wasn't a terrorist who just killed Taylor Force directly. It was actually a school trip from Vanderbilt's business school.

So it was a group of Vanderbilt students, Vanderbilt University students, they were over there. So 11 injured, one killed Taylor Force, and the terrorists killed as well. And that's what's finally, finally spurred fan Congress into action to say, you know what, we're going to stop the executive branch's ability to decide. And by the way, it was signed into law by President Trump.

So the executive branch agreed, but this brought very bipartisan support here. We're going to stop funding to the Palestinian Authority unless they do X, Y, and Z. Yeah, that's right, Jordan. And honestly, this funding should have been stopped long before, but it was that incident that finally drove the bipartisan support to the point where, quite honestly, Jordan, they couldn't ignore the will of the American people.

The American people, their eyes are wide open to the fact that this is a terrible program, but it was that killing that brought the knowledge of the existence of the program to a more widespread scale and where Democrats, quite frankly, in Washington, Jordan, couldn't ignore it. And I really want to hammer this point home because the law specifically says that the payments cannot continue. It doesn't say unless the Palestinians change the structure. Jordan, it says unless the Secretary of State certifies that these payments have ceased. Well, I just don't think there's any way in the world that Secretary Blinken is going to confirm that because he knows good and well that they haven't ceased.

And that would bring, you know, his own set of troubles onto him. So he's not going to certify that. Maybe the Palestinians will try to reorganize a little bit. But Jordan, that is not what the law requires in order for the payments to continue.

I don't think they should continue anyway, even if the payments were to cease. But Jordan, under federal law, U.S. law, Secretary Blinken must certify before that begins. So I really think the next time Secretary Blinken comes out, he should be asked that question. Are you prepared to certify that the pay for slave payments have ceased?

He's not going to be willing to do that. Yeah, and they're looking at workarounds. That's why the ACLJ, through our FOIA operations, is going to be right at the State Department trying to figure out, because they're hinting already through their spokespeople, they want to get that direct relationship going again. How are they going to do that?

What are they doing to do that? And is that in violation of existing U.S. law? So we are going to stay on it at the ACLJ. It's not something we just talked about again. It's not just something we're bringing back to talk about the Taylor Force Act to talk about it.

It's because the Taylor Force Act, the Biden administration is trying to work around it. We need to all be aware of that. Just like yesterday, when we pointed out this provision on states being able to lower taxes in the American Rescue Plan, and those challenges that will be coming that we'll be supporting at the ACLJ. But I did want to give Harry opportunity. You've got a new blog up, Harry, on a religious liberty victory at the U.S. Supreme Court involving a Georgia university.

Tell people about that. This is a very, very important decision, Jordan. And as I pointed out in the blog post, dangers for Christian individuals, schools, and colleges are now clearly on the nation's horizon.

Why is this the case? It's the case because left-wing advocates and others continue to advance policies that place constitutional rights at risk. Recently, Jordan, you wrote a piece which argued that the American people demand what in adherence to the United States Constitution, the rule of law, and they demand accountable leaders. And so we demand these things despite the authoritarian response by state leaders to the pandemic.

Accountability at the end of the day means accountability to the people, not to upper-class elites, globalists, and social justice warriors who wish to essentially dissolve our constitutional republic through the deployment of progressive ideology. And so the decision by the United States Supreme Court in use Boonam versus Przyzewski, that was an eight to one decision which upheld the right of enrolled college students to exercise their religion by sharing their faith on campus. Why is that decision important?

Because it shrinks the power of elite bureaucrats at universities to abrogate and to diminish students' First Amendment rights. This will indeed be a continuing fight. We will need to be continually vigilant and there will be other opportunities for the ACLJ and its members to engage. Just briefly, I just saw breaking news that Xavier Becerra's nomination is going to the Senate floor. What's the timeline on that?

Do we know yet? Yeah, they just held a vote to actually formally discharge him out of committee. That had to happen because the committee vote was tied. Jordan, that discharge did happen. Joe Manchin and Susan Collins both voted for it, so his final confirmation is going to happen next week. And Jordan, we knew it was an uphill climb.

It looks like we won't get there, Jordan. We're not going to let up. The final confirmation will be next week, but Susan Collins and Joe Manchin both voted to advance his nomination just a few minutes ago. Those are key.

Now, that doesn't mean they'll definitely vote to confirm, but we will watch that very carefully as well. As always, support the work of the ACLJ month of March. You double the impact of your donation at ACLJ.org. It's a matching challenge month.

Talk to you tomorrow. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's matching challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20. A $50 gift becomes $100. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family. Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org.