The U.S. State Dept. has filed a motion to dismiss the claims of a group of Americans who allege American aid money to the Palestinian Authority funds terrorism.

The Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act requires the State Department to certify that none of the money is used for terror.

“It is estimated that since the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, the State Department, via USAID, has given over $4 billion to Palestinians, according to the Israel Law Center (Shurat HaDin). The sum includes U.S. funding to UNRWA, the United Nations body that operates in Judea, Samaria and Gaza.

The lawsuit, filed by 24 Americans living in Israel last November in the U.S. District Court for Washington, contends that the State Department has ignored Congressional safeguards and transparency requirements which govern financial assistance to the PA.

The Jewish Press and other media have frequently reported that the Palestinian Authority pays fat salaries to its suicide bomb masterminds serving time in Israeli jails, spends money to build monuments to glorify suicide bombers and funds its media to disseminate incitement to terror against Jews. Millions of dollars also are transferred to Hamas, which the State Dept. itself classifies as an illegal terrorist organization.

The attorneys for the U.S. government, who have asked the court not to allow the case to continue, claim that the plaintiffs lack standing to bring this civil action and that the case raises “political questions.”

Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, one of the attorneys for the plaintiffs and director of the Israel Law Center explained in a statement Tuesday that the issue is the lack of transparency on the part the officials at Foggy Bottom in Washington.

“Rather than defend the government’s foreign aid policy on its merits and provide proof that it truly knows where taxpayer money to the PA is going, the government’s lawyers are trying to dismiss the lawsuit on legal technicalities,” she said. ”They are saying that it is pure speculation that Americans can be injured by terrorism in Israel and that the issue of funding is a foreign policy power reserved to the U.S. President and cannot be reviewed by the courts.”

Darshan-Leitner added emphasized that the lawsuit does not challenge the Executive Branch’s right to conduct foreign policy but simply want transparency.

“U.S. funds are being utilized by the Palestinians for terrorism which threatens Americans, and the plaintiffs will be responding to this motion and asking that the case be allowed to go forward,” Darshan-Leitner stressed.

The Department of Justice has declined to comment on the case when asked to do buy the Washington Free Beacon.

Syrian rebel fighters have refused to accept a Syrian-born and naturalized American citizen as their show prime minister, destroying an American effort to put into place an organizational structure to help channeling aid to rebels in the war against Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Texas resident and IT executive Ghassan Hitto narrowly won last week’s election as “prime minister” amid warnings by rebels that they do not hold enough territory in Syria to warrant an interim government.

Hitto was backed not only by Western governments but also by organizations outside of Syria, such as the Muslim Brotherhood, making him even more suspicious to opponents.

Syrian National Coalition president Mouaz al-Khatib wrote on his Facebook page Sunday, “I am keeping my promise today and announcing my resignation from the National Coalition so that I can work with freedom that is not available inside the official institutions.”

He blamed Western powers for failing to give enough material support to the rebels while trying to punish them into dialogue with Assad, whose army and secret service have murdered tens of thousands of men, women and children in the two-year-old rebellion.

Secretary of State John Kerry steadfastly continued U.S. foreign policy of living in its own world and insisted that the resignation only proves that there is in Syria “an opposition that is bigger than one person and that opposition will continue.”

Kerry, in case anyone forgets, visited Damascus often when he was chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and struck up a dialogue with Assad, who in turn was termed a “reformer” by Kerry’s predecessor Hillary Clinton two weeks after the beginning of the revolt against him.

CNN’s Erin Burnett interviewed former first lady Laura Bush about the Women’s Initiative program Bush heads with her husband, former president George W. Bush, on Monday, March 11.  During the interview, Burnett threw a question out to Bush that was so shocking, had Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck asked an analogous question, there might actually have been rioting in the streets.

Burnett seemed to be strongly implying to Bush that Americans should reward and honor someone who bravely protested their own mistreatment even if that person (repeatedly) cheered the brutal murders of Americans and Israelis.  To withhold an Arab’s reward on the basis of terrorism-glorification is merely American chauvinism, was Burnett’s suggestion.

The CNN host appeared to be trying to get Bush to see that if the U.S. wants to see Egypt and other countries in the Middle East prosper, we cannot hold their heroes to western ethical standards.

Bush was a guest on “OutFront,” Burnett’s CNN show.  “Designed to showcase Erin’s unique style – casual, smart, and confident,” is how CNN describes the show.  Two out of three ain’t bad.

The Women’s Initiative Fellowship Project is a part of the George W. Bush Institute.  The WIF project helps women in the Middle East develop the necessary skills to become effective leaders and build a stronger civil society. The Fellows study leadership skills, exchange expertise, and learn to advocate for social stability.  On Friday, March 8, International Women’s Day, Bush celebrated the graduation of WIFP’s first class of 14 Egyptian Fellows, and welcomed the incoming 19 Fellows of the 2013 class.

It was ostensibly to talk about this initiative that Burnett invited Bush to appear on “OutFront.”

Just prior to the terrorism glorification exchange, Burnett asked Bush why her husband, George W. Bush, is a partner in the initiative.

Mrs. Bush explained that he, like “all Americans, if we want peace in the world, and to have peace in our own country, we have to help other countries,” and she said that, “we look at countries where women are marginalized and we nearly always see a failing country.”

“It’s important, when you look around the world, to make sure that men and women can help their countries prosper in every way,” is how Bush expressed her own view.  Without skipping a beat, Burnett grabbed the ball with a point she apparently thought would be supported by what Mrs. Bush had just said. Burnett said,

There’s an Egyptian woman, Samira Ibrahim, and she’s done a lot of things, some courageous things, she’s also been criticized for sending tweets that are anti-Semitic, anti-American, does the U.S. need to accept that? When you want to make change, you have to support people who do that, financially, in terms of awards, in terms of all these things – because it pays off in the end? Is that a trade-off we have to make?

Laura Bush, gave a startled “No, I don’t think so,” and went on to discuss how important it is for Americans to support women in every way they can, and how easy it is for WIFP to recruit American women who are eager to be mentors to the Egyptian Fellows because American women are interested in women from all over the world and want to support them.

Samira Ibrahim was criticized – legitimately – as reported here at The Jewish Press, for sending a series of terrorism-glorification tweets within the last year, including ones expressing: joy that 5 Israelis were murdered by Hezbollah terrorists in Bulgaria; hope that more Americans will burn every year on 9/11; and support for an observation that Adolf Hitler accurately noted that at the root of all evil you can find the hand of a Jew.

When enough people made noise about the hatred Ibrahim had expressed, the State Department ultimately called off – temporarily it wrote  – having First Lady Michelle Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry honor her at an event, also on International Women’s Day, to receive the Secretary of State’s Women of Courage Award.

The award presentation was withheld so that the state department could investigate Ibrahim’s claims that her twitter account had been hacked and she was not responsible for any of the hate-filled tweets.  The state department cautiously but publicly supported that version of events.

Ibrahim later tweeted that she refused to back down to the “Zionist lobby” and apologize for her tweets, even though the state department was trying to get her to do so.  Presumably that will end the expenditure of additional American taxpayers funds to exonerate Ibrahim. And despite the best efforts of CNN’s Burnett to recruit Laura Bash to the “Save Samira” campaign, it is unlikely Ibrahim will ever receive any courage awards from the U.S. government.

BREAKING NEWS: JUST AS THIS STORY WAS ABOUT TO BE PUBLISHED, THE JEWISH PRESS LEARNED THAT IBRAHIM WILL NOT RECEIVE THE AWARD AT THE CEREMONY, PENDING FURTHER REVIEW OF HER ALLEGED ANTI-SEMITIC AND ANTI-AMERICAN PUBLIC STATEMENTS.  SEE UPDATE AT BOTTOM OF ARTICLE.

This Friday, March 9, is International Women’s Day. First Lady Michelle Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry will mark that day by honoring ten women with the Secretary of State Women of Courage Award.  Very nice.  Except one of those women, Samira Ibrahim, hates the U.S., Jews and the Jewish State and she is delighted when Israelis and Americans are killed.  Not so nice.

Ibrahim is being honored for doing some very brave things.  She took a serious risk when she joined the protests in Cairo’s Tahrir Square in 2011 against the Mubarak regime.

Ibrahim was detained by police and was one of 17 women subjected to a horrifically degrading – both conceptually and in practice – “virginity test,” the goal of which was to humiliate her  and to prove that only “bad” women protest.  The official reason given was to protect Egyptian military from charges of rape by these women. Ibrahim also claimed to have been tortured and sexually abused while in the prison.

Rather than suffer in silence, as so many victims do, Ibrahim filed a lawsuit against the Egyptian government.  “I will not give up my rights as a woman or a human being,” she said at the time.

As a result of Ibrahim’s legal efforts, the Egyptian government banned those tests.  Good for her!  But based on public utterances Ibraham made, she not only does not care about justice for those different from herself, she actually applauds the death, torture and murder of others – if they are Jews or Americans.

In different statements, over the period of many months, the most recent in September, Ibrahim praised the 9/11/12 murder of four Americans, exulted at the death of 5 Israelis, quoted Hitler in Jews having a hand in all bad things, and said a Saudi official was worse than a “dirty Jew.”

Once these statements saw the light of day, originally in a story in The Weekly Standard, Ibrahim and U.S. officials have offered various excuses.  One of her excuses, which her U.S. government backers picked up, is that her Twitter account was hacked and she didn’t write any of the bad things on her account.  That doesn’t seem likely as the tweets – which were commented on at the time – remained in her feed without any public protest by her until the Standard story came out.

Charlize Theron, an Academy award winning actress and former super-model, wrote admiringly of Ibrahim in a Time Magazine special on “The World’s 100 Most Influential People” last spring.

When I first heard Samira’s story, it moved me. Not simply because of the abhorrent injustice she experienced but also because of her bravery to speak the truth and to face those who would tell her to stay quiet. It takes a strong person to stand up for what is right in the face of ostracism and public scrutiny. Samira represents the model of how to stand up to fear, and the impact she has made reaches far beyond Egypt. It takes just one woman to speak out, and thousands of others around the world will listen and feel inspired to act.

Theron is a United Nations Messenger of Peace, focusing on eliminating violence against women, according to Time.   But not all women, apparently.  Because Ibrahim, whom Theron wrote so admiringly about, actually rejoiced when one women was blown to bits this summer.  That woman, Kochava Shriki, was one of the five Israeli tourists murdered by Hezbollah terrorists in Burgas, Bulgaria.  Just as she was leaving on her trip to Bulgaria, Shriki learned that she was pregnant for the first time.

When Shriki and four other Israelis were murdered, Ibrahim tweeted, “explosion on a bus carrying Israelis in Burgas airport in Bulgaria on the Black Sea. Today is a very sweet day with a lot of very sweet news.”

But it isn’t just the Jews Ibrahim hates.  When the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya burned and U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed, Ibrahim tweeted: “Today is the anniversary of 9/11. May every year come with America burning.”

The role of money in perpetuating vile terrorism never seems to get enough attention.

On Monday in Washington, Victoria Nuland, the spokesperson for the United States Department of State, articulated in the clearest way where the U.S. administration stands on delivering gifts to the Mahmoud Abbas regime, the one that is in control of sections of the entity called by many the State of Palestine. She was addressing a daily press briefing:

[W]e think it’s very, very important that they remain effective in supporting the needs of the Palestinian people… So we’re continuing to work through this. I would simply say that the Secretary [of State, meaning John Kerry, in his second week in office] feels extremely strongly that it is time now to get this support to the Palestinian Authority.” Ms Nuland was speaking about the U.S. giving funds to the P.A., the body which officially renamed itself “the State of Palestine” a few weeks ago.

She had spoken about the value of handing money to the Abbas regime just a few days earlier as well – on the previous Friday, February 8 in that day’s press briefing:

We are working with Congress to ensure U.S. support for the Palestinians, including $495.7 million in F.Y. 2012 assistance that was notified in April 2012 and $200 million in F.Y. 2013 direct budget support that was notified last week. Our view remains that our assistance to the Palestinian people is an essential part of the U.S. commitment to a negotiated two-state solution for Palestinians and Israelis, promoting a comprehensive peace in the Middle East. It is in the interest not only of the Palestinians, but of Israel and the United States as well, to ensure these efforts continue as they help to build a more democratic, stable and secure region. We’re not well placed to speak about what’s good for the USA or for the Palestinians, though we don’t lack opinions. We also refrain from criticizing the government of our own country in relation to its sending money to Mahmoud Abbas and his cronies. (Ask us and we’ll explain why.)

The point of raising here, again, this issue of money being handed over to the Palestinian Arabs in their various configurations is to remind decent people of what is done with it in reality. It’s a murky and very disturbing picture. The facts are out there, but you might be surprised at how little they are known, and how little attention the politicians pay to them.

It’s a matter that has been on our minds for years. Look for instance at what we wrote in October 2006:

Don’t be offended. But if you’re a European who cares about what’s being done with the taxes you pay to your government, the Palestinians are playing you for a fool. Not just you alone, but also your government, your politicians and your public-sector watchdogs. There are some startling revelations there that, in most cases, are even truer now, though now the evidence is easier to see – for those who want to see it.

Thanks to our friends at Palestinian Media Watch and Love of the Land for alerting us to a revealing video clip from official PA Television that aired last March. The on-camera presenter is interviewing a released Palestinian Arab former-prisoner who is proud to talk openly about the acts of terrorism he executed. He’s open about this because he has money on his mind. Here’s the transcript (the P.A. television video clip itself can be seen here):

Host: “With us is Iyad Abu Khaizaran. Good evening.” [Iyad Abu Khaizaran was a member of Islamic Jihad when he was sentenced to a life term plus 25 years in 1991 for the murder by stabbing of a 76 year old Jewish man, Shlomo Yahya, in the Tel Aviv suburbs. He walked free in the Shalit Transaction in 2011, and recently married.] Iyad Abu Khaizaran: “Since the day we were released from prison, we have been given [only] half a salary… We killed Jews. I personally killed Jews. I killed settlers and I injured soldiers. My house was destroyed. I have 11 bullets in my body. I served 22 years in Israeli prisons.” Host: “Did you, like the other [prisoners], receive salaries in the prisons?” Abu Khaizaran: “Yes. Since around the year 2000, [the salaries] became organized.” Host: “In other words, from 2000, did all the organizations, without exception, whether it was Fatah or Hamas, supporters of Abbas or not supporters of Abbas, receive salaries or not? Tell the truth openly.” Abu Khaizaran: “Yes, yes they did.” He feels those salaries were too small to start with. He complained bitterly to a pro-terrorism website last year:

“His salary from the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority, he said, doesn’t even cover the taxes levied on his family land in Tubas.” He demonstrates that money is a significant dimension to the kill-elderly-Jews experience. More people should listen to him.

The U.S. State Department has told Egypt it is “extremely disturbed” by the video of Egyptian police brutally beating and dragging a naked activist near the presidential palace as the Muslim Brotherhood makes the Obama administration’s enthusiastic welcome of the regime more problematic.

While the State Dept, omitted any terms such as “outrage” or “barbaric” in order not to offend Cairo, Egyptian media reported there have been at least two death-by-torture incidents. Many others are “missing.”

The State. Dept. was “extremely disturbed” only after a video was shown of the beating of the naked activist, Hamda Saber, but there has been no lack of evidence of previous brutality, similar if not worse than that imposed by Mubarak’s police force.

More than 60 people were killed in clashes against the Morsi regime the past several weeks.

The “new” Egypt now has to explain the death of Popular Current party activist Mohammed El-Gendy, 28, who was at Cairo’s Tahrir Square eight days ago. He died Monday following multiple fractures and brain damage, and Morsi has gone through the motions of ordering an investigation.

Also on Monday, 20-year-old Amr Saade died after clashes with the police outside the presidential palace.

“While many have been shocked by El-Gendy’s death, he is not the first to die of torture during Morsi’s rule,” human rights activist Hossam Bahgat said via Twitter. “You only know his name because he’s a political activist.”

The April 6 Youth Movement said on Sunday asserting that one of its members, Hossam El-Din Abdel-Hamid, was missing after having been detained by police.

“Abdel-Hamid was brutally beaten and is suffering from a severe injury and has not been referred to the prosecution until this minute,” April 6 stated. ”

“Most of those arrested [estimated at more than 600 since 25 January] are now being detained in… camps that are not made or equipped for detention,” Malek Adly, a rights lawyer told Ahram Online. “Unlike prisons or police stations, these camps aren’t equipped to provide prisoners with meals, so detainees are often left without food or water for long periods.”

With Egypt facing bankruptcy and political chaos, two years after the Arab Spring revolution that deposed Hosni Mubarak, Morsi faces increased opposition as Egyptian media leak details of police brutality against those who oppose him. The United States applauded the results of last year’s election because it was “democratic.”

The first American venture into making democracy safe for the Middle East was then-Sec. of State Condoleezza Rice’s excitement over the first – and last – democratic elections in the Palestinian Authority eight years ago. Hamas won.

The two-day old tenure of Secretary of State John Kerry got off to a flying start today with an astonishing statement from his ambassador to Egypt, Anne W. Patterson, at a joint ceremony in Cairo to mark the delivery of four American-made F-16 aircraft:

Today’s ceremony demonstrates the firm belief of the United States that a strong Egypt is in the interest of the U.S., the region, and the world. We look to Egypt to continue to serve as a force for peace, security, and leadership as the Middle East proceeds with its challenging yet essential journey toward democracy. … Our thirty-four year security partnership is based upon shared interests and mutual respect. The United States has long recognized Egypt as an indispensible [sic] partner.

Is not anyone in the Department of State aware that Egypt is now run by an Islamist zealot from the bowels of the Muslim Brotherhood whose goals differ profoundly from those of Americans?

Willfully ignorant, head-in-the-ground statements like this are the embarrassment and ruin of American foreign policy.

What a launch for Kerry, whose mental vapidity promises to make Hillary Clinton actually look good in retrospect. (February 3, 2013)

Originally posted at National Review Online and Daniel Pipes.org, February 3, 2013, under the title, “What Planet Does John Kerry Live On?”

Visit Atlas Shrugs.

Get your arms around this one, Americans. Obama’s Deputy Special Coordinator in the State Department’s Office of Middle East Transition, Mark Ward, held a seminar with two notorious Muslim Brotherhood groups, the Muslim American Society (MAS) and the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA). Ward stood side by side with speakers who advocate violent jihad. What was he doing there? Recruiting.

This is beyond infiltration. This is a stealth coup.

Ward stood with Jamal Badawi. At interfaith events Jamal Badawi is presented as a scholarly visitor from Canada – a Professor of Business Mathematics at St Johns University in Halifax. My sources tell me he is the chief Hamas honcho in North America.

Here’s the article from Judicial Watch:

State Dept. Recruits Muslim Foreign Service Officers at Jihadist Conf. Judicial Watch, January 30, 2013 (thanks to Todd)

…

Now comes news of a secretive State Department campaign, discovered in the course of a Judicial Watch investigation, to add Muslims to its roster. Presumably, the new recruits will be deployed around the globe to help the agency fulfill its mission of promoting the country’s international relations. The campaign seems to be headed by Mark Ward, the Deputy Special Coordinator in the State Department’s Office of Middle East Transition.

Ward held a 90-minute seminar at a recent convention sponsored by two groups—Muslim American Society (MAS) and the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA)—with known ties to radical Islam. Both nonprofits are associated with the Muslim Brotherhood, which is known as the parent organization of Hamas and al Qaeda. In fact, the Investigative Project on Terrorism reports that MAS was founded as the U.S. chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood which strives to indoctrinate the world with Islamic Sharia law.

Yet there was a U.S. State Department official, side by side at a radical Islamic powwow in Chicago with a number of speakers who advocate violent jihad. Among them was Kifah Mustapha, a fundraiser at terrorist organization (Holy Land Foundation) convicted of funneling millions to Hamas and Jamal Badawi, a MAS founder who praised the jihad of Gaza terrorists during a speech titled “Understanding Jihad and Martyrdom.”

The conference that Ward conducted focused on career opportunities for Muslim youth. Here is how the event was billed: “Besides being a citizenship duty, there are benefits that Muslims can add to the American Muslim community and the global Muslim world by joining the US Foreign Services. This session will shed light on the different career opportunities for Muslim youth in the U.S. Foreign Services Department. It will also clear any concerns that many people have feared about   pursuing in this career.”

Joining Ward at the podium in the recruitment seminar were Ayman Hammous and Oussama Jammal.  Hammous is the Executive Director of the New York chapter of MAS and Jammal is the president of the Mosque Foundation, a conservative mosque in Bridgeview, Illinois that gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Holy Land Foundation and other Islamic charities accused of financing terrorism.