Despite court decisions
Two seemingly unrelated articles caught my attention this morning.
The first, a link from the Dry Bones cartoon for Thursday, August 06, 2015, led me to an AP story titled U.S. Likely to Intervene in Palestinian Terror Case.
The second, initially seen on Israel HaYom, appears on the Business Insider web site under the heading Victims of Iran-backed attacks who won $1.5 billion in court are suing the US to keep sanctions in place.
The AP copy continues: At issue is $218.5 million in damages awarded by a New York jury in February for attacks that killed 33 people and wounded hundreds more — a penalty that lawyers say would be automatically tripled under the U.S. Anti-Terrorism Act, but that the State Department fears could weaken the stability of the Palestinian government.
The victims, understanding that the PA only has ready cash to pay salaries to jailed terrorists, stipends to dead terrorists' survivors, and monuments honoring the terrorists' "heroism," are willing to take payments over time. (Based on the PA's payments for water and electricity provided by Israel, even token payments to the terrorists' victims seems unlikely.)
Like the first item, the second is a case of the federal government protecting a terror sponsor; this time, Iran.
The Reuters' story begins NEW YORK (Reuters) - Twenty U.S. citizens who won more than $1.5 billion in court judgments against Iran for its support of militant attacks sued the U.S. government on Wednesday to try and prevent it from lifting sanctions on Tehran under an international nuclear deal.
The lawsuit in federal court in New York said that unfreezing Iranian funds would rob the victims of the attacks in Israel and the Gaza Strip of “their last remaining opportunity to pressure Iran to satisfy their judgments."
It has been suggested that the victims of PA-sponsored attacks get their money from the funds the U.S. government provides the PA on a continuing basis (ignoring what the PA does with the money).
The same might be applied to Iran's frozen funds; take out the $1.5 billion awarded by the courts and distribute it to the victims of Iran-sponsored terrorism before lifting sanctions on Iran.
Will either suggestion win Obama's approval?
Does it snow in Key West?
