“80 years after the Holocaust, there is a price for Jewish blood,” Shurat Hadin director Nitsana Darshan-Leitner said Monday at the Jerusalem Post Conference in New York.
To exact a price from terrorists, “the private sector [needs] to take part in this war,” she said, rejecting the idea that fighting terrorism is solely the job of the government and the defense establishment. “The only way to fight terrorism is everyone together – me, you, everyone.”
Speaking on “The Price of Terror” panel along with Stuart Force, father of American terrorism victim Taylor Force, Darshan-Leitner said if you see “a lawless regime, terrorism is on the rise.”
“Shurat Hadin was established to choke off the pipeline of the money of terrorism to make sure no one is killing Jews” and doesn’t pay a price, she said.
“Private people built the State of Israel; private people keep it safe,” she added.
“Private people built the State of Israel; private people keep it safe.”
Shurat Hadin director Nitsana Darshan-Leitner
Force talked about how he became involved in the campaign against the Palestinians' “pay for slay” policy, in which the Palestinian Authority pays money to terrorists who have killed Israelis.
“There was a program in place – ‘pay for slay,’” he said. “I knew something had to be done.”
Force said when Darshan-Leitner approached him to file lawsuits, he immediately came onboard.
US Sen. Lindsey Graham approached him to help the campaign to pass a law against US aid being used for “pay for slay,” he said, adding that he told Graham, “Whatever you need.”
“Next thing we knew we were at a Washington, DC, press conference,” Force said.
Recalling the moment when he learned that the legislation would be named for his murdered son, Taylor Force, he said he and his wife broke down in the airport where they were, overwhelmed with emotion.
Force said the key was educating politicians and the public about pay for slay.
Almost no one had heard of it before their information campaign, but as soon as people were told about it, they were ready to support new laws to crack down on terrorism, he said.
“We have to shut off the funds,” Force said. “The administration has to support it.”