Giuliani to ‘Post’: PA a ‘renegade group’ of ‘terrorists and thieves’
The Argentinian national team’s decision to succumb to threats and cancel its exhibition match in Israel Saturday night is “outrageous,” Rudy Giuliani told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.
Giuliani, in Israel until Sunday for a number of speaking appearances, said: “You should never succumb to fear induced by terrorists.”
Giuliani, the combative ex-mayor of New York City during the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, noted that the Argentinian national team already agreed to play in Israel, and the only reason they backed out was because of fear.
“You don’t let terrorism frighten you into not doing what you already agreed to do,” he said. “Had they not agreed to it in the first place, it would be one thing; but having agreed to it, you have to have the courage to go through with it.”
Regarding the threats to the lives of the players and the team’s security consideration, Giuliani said: “It seems to me this is a very wealthy organization. You get protection and move forward.”
Giuliani, who is currently US President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, said that in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 he would appear on television and urge people to come to New York to demonstrate that “terrorism cannot affect us.”
“Resilience is a defense to terrorism,” he said.
Giuliani noted the stark contrast between Trump’s decision to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem last month and the Argentinian team’s move.
Moving the embassy, he said, was important “for the same reason it would have been important for Argentina to go through with this game. There
was only one reason not to move the embassy: fear. America, the greatest military power on earth, should not be affected by fear.”
Giuliani was withering in his criticism of the Palestinian Authority, which pushed hard for the cancellation of the match, calling it a “renegade group; terrorists and thieves.”
The PA, he said, “has to show it can get control of terrorism. It has to end. It has to show that it can put together a responsible government that will act on behalf of the people, and not steal them blind.”
According to Giuliani, except for some “left-wing political contingents, no one in the US has any use for the Palestinian Authority. We are aware of the fact that they pay salaries to convicted terrorists, including people convicted of killing Americans. That is totally mind-boggling.”
On Wednesday night, Giuliani was the keynote speaker at an event put on by OneFamily, the organization that supports families whose loved ones were killed or wounded in terrorist attacks.
In introducing Giuliani, Marc Belzberg, the group’s chairman, noted that the Knesset next week will consider a bill that will “withhold all taxes collected on behalf of the PA until the PA revokes its ‘pay to slay’ laws, which financially reward, and thereby incentivize, the killing of Jews in Israel.”
Belzberg continued, “It is no wonder that the terror never stops. It’s because there is never an end to individuals who want to give their families financial security, even at the risk of death.” •