WASHINGTON — Republicans and Democrats are coalescing around U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham's bill to cut off foreign aid to the Palestinian Authority unless it guarantees it will no longer offer cash prizes for killing Americans or Israelis.
The South Carolina Republican's legislation is named for Taylor Force, the 28-year-old son of a Kiawah Island couple who was killed in 2016 by a Palestinian terrorist while studying abroad in Israel.
“It’s got to hurt for (them) to know that the taxes they pay go to a Palestinian Authority who rewards the killer of their son. There is no good explanation for this," Graham said Wednesday as the Senate Foreign Relations Committee met to consider the legislation.
Graham said the committee has the opportunity to send a signal that the Palestinian Authority "is inconsistent with a two-state solution, inconsistent with peace, and we need to stop our emboldening of this practice.”
Taylor's father, Stuart Force, who came to Capitol Hill last fall to see Graham introduce the measure, returned to Washington, D.C., Wednesday to attend the committee hearing — the first step in moving it through the legislative process.
He sat in the front row of the hearing room, nodding along with remarks from lawmakers and committee witnesses. They included Elliott Abrams, who served in the Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush administrations, and Daniel Shapiro, the former U.S. Ambassador to Israel.
Dialogue between members of the committee and Abrams and Shapiro touched on similar themes.
Lawmakers were curious as to why it took Taylor Force's death to bring this issue to the forefront. Abrams, who conceded he wished the Bush administration had taken action on this matter, said it hasn't been until recently that the depth of the problem has come into focus.
Senators on both sides of the aisle also acknowledged Graham's original text would likely need to be amended to ensure that a prohibition of funds to the Palestinian Authority did not result in cutting off key humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians not at fault.
Senate Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said towards the end of the two-hour hearing that he felt his colleagues were coming up with lots of good ideas towards reaching a compromise.
Shapiro, who said he was a mile away from where Taylor Force was killed on the day of the tragedy, suggested other parties and players could build support and raise awareness on the issue, naming Nikki Haley, former South Carolina governor and now U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland, the committee's top Democrat, left little room for debate on the bill's future.
"I am convinced we will take action," he said.