Worst. President. Ever.
(NYT) Back in February, a Manhattan federal jury sent a critical message about holding the perpetrators of terror responsible: It found the Palestinian Authority liable for six attacks and assessed $218.5 million in damages.
But on Monday, thanks to Team Obama, that message was all but obliterated.
After an unusual intercession by the State and Justice departments, the judge hearing the case ordered the PA to post $10 million cash plus another $1 million a month as a bond while the case is appealed.
That’s a far cry from the $30 million a month the victorious plaintiffs had sought. And it’s a pittance next to what most other defendants would have to post.
The jurors held the PA responsible for attacks from 2002 to 2004 that killed 33 and wounded 400 others. The plaintiffs — 10 US families directly affected by the terrorism — showed that the PA employed the perps and made payments to suicide bombers’ families.
The usual appeals bond is 111 percent of the verdict — which in this case would be $655 million, since the amount is tripled under the 1992 US Anti-Terrorism Act.
But the administration pushed Judge George Daniels not to hit the PA too hard for fear it might collapse and endanger “a two-state solution” to the Middle East conflict.
So Daniels wound up assessing exactly what the PA said it could pay. That token amount probably won’t even cut into the PA’s subsidy of convicted terrorists — payments one official likened to “Social Security.”
Will the administration now try to overturn the whole verdict by saying the PA can’t afford to pay the damages?
Actually, the larger question is: How did US policy sink to the absurdity of relying on the terror-sponsoring Palestinian Authority as a vehicle for peace?
