US Senate Committee conditions aid to Palestinians on ending pro- terror policy

The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee early Friday passed by a 17-4 bipartisan vote the Taylor Force Act which makes $300m of annual aid conditional on the Palestinian Authority ending its policy of “paying salaries to terrorists and their families.”  The motion returns to the Senate for a vote during the fall session.

The act is named in memory of Taylor Force — a former US Army officer and veteran of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars who was murdered in Tel Aviv in a Palestinian stabbing attack in March 2016. The 28-year-old Force, a Vanderbilt University graduate student, had been visiting Israel as part of a school-organized spring break trip.