Palestinian terrorists have murdered more Americans than the Islamic State

On Tuesday, two Palestinian terrorists entered a synagogue in Jerusalem and killed four people during morning prayers, then killed an Israeli police officer responding to the scene. This attack is the latest in a recent string of heinous attacks by Palestinian terrorists.

Three other recent victims were U.S. citizens. The American victims include both Naftali Frankel, a student who was abducted and murdered while hitchhiking home from school, and Chaya Zissel Braun, a 3-month-old baby murdered by a terrorist who used his car as a weapon.

In President Obama’s statement on the recent attack, he called for Palestinians and Israelis to “work together to lower tensions” and made sure to stress that the “majority of Palestinians and Israelis overwhelmingly want peace.” Unfortunately, as far as the reference to Palestinians is concerned, this statement is short on facts. Even though Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas publicly condemned the attack, officials from his Fatah party, along with Hamas, applauded it.

A recent poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research shows that following the 50-day conflict with Israel over the summer, the popularity of the terrorist group Hamas grew throughout the region. Last year, a Pew Research poll showed that 62 percent of Palestinian Muslims believe suicide bombings are “often or sometimes justified.”

Since the beginning of the summer, Hamas has been a part of a new Palestinian unity government. Despite the law that requires the United States to cut aid to any Palestinian government in which Hamas holds “undue influence,” we still provide millions of dollars in aid to the Palestinians. The Obama administration has jumped through hoops to give the terrorist government legitimacy, and over the summer it pledged $47 million in aid to the Palestinians.

So far in 2014, seven U.S. citizens have been murdered by Palestinian terrorists. In comparison, the terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria has been responsible for the death of three Americans, including the recent beheading of aid worker Peter Kassig.

Following Kassig’s murder, Obama described this event as “an act of pure evil by a terrorist group that the world rightly associates with inhumanity.” So, what is the difference between Palestinian terrorists and the Islamic State terrorists? And why does the president condemn one while calling for restraint against the other?

There is very little difference between the ideologies of the Palestinian terrorists and those belonging to the Islamic State. Hamas, like the Islamic State, is a violent Islamist group interested in establishing a caliphate and imposing the supremacist doctrine of Islamic Shariah law across the world. Moreover, reports are showing that nearly one in four Palestinians has expressed their support for the Islamic State and have even joined the fighting ranks of the radical group.

So, what is the difference between these two groups? Palestinian terrorists have killed seven Americans this year while the Islamic State has killed three. Moreover, they have done it while receiving U.S. funds.

It is time for the United States to reconsider the aid money it sends to the Palestinians until they stop inciting, committing, and applauding the murders of innocent civilians. The Obama administration also needs to stop calling for Israel to show restraint toward Palestinian terrorists and allow the country to act appropriately to combat terrorism. Israel is working not only to protect its own citizens but the many Americans who live in the region as well.