The Turkish parliament voted to accept Sweden as a member of NATO last month, but this should not distract us from how outrageous Turkish rhetoric and behavior have been under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP).

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Turkey is wildly out of step with other NATO members. Turkish language about Israel is unhinged. Erdogan accused Israel of carrying out "the most heinous attacks in human history"; equated Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with Adolf Hitler, giving Netanyahu the moniker the "butcher of Gaza"; and accused Israel of being a "terror state" that is committing genocide in Gaza.

On the other hand, Erdogan referred to Hamas as a "liberation group" and refused to categorize it as a terrorist organization. Turkish behavior toward Israel has been no less reprehensible and sets it apart from the rest of NATO. Ankara removed Israel as a favored export target to discourage Turkish companies from engaging in commerce with Israel. The Turks also assisted South Africa in that country's ludicrous case against Israel in the International Court of Justice, furnishing Pretoria with "evidence" of Israeli "genocide." When an Israeli soccer player, Sagiv Jehezkel, expressed solidarity with Israeli hostages, he was detained by Turkish authorities. Turkey's Justice Minister said that Jehezkel was under investigation because he had "openly incited the public to hatred and hostility" with "an ugly gesture in support of the Israeli massacre in Gaza."

How ludicrous. How disgraceful. When the United States and Britain launched strikes against the Iranian-backed Houthis, Erdogan sided with Iran and Russia, accusing the US and Britain of trying "to turn the Red Sea into a sea of blood."

Turkey's behavior is uniquely pernicious because it is a member of NATO and, therefore, nominally a steadfast ally of the United States and Western countries. It is one thing for Iran or Russia to say and do outrageous things. It is another for a NATO member to do so. However, under Erdogan and the AKP, Turkish policies are converging with those of Russia and Iran and, in the past, have even benefited ISIS – all directly contrary to NATO objectives.

Turkey has aided Iran in evading sanctions. Erdogan's confidant, Sitki Ayan, was sanctioned by the US Treasury for leading a "sanctions evasion network…that has facilitated the sale of hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of oil for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force." A Turkish banker was convicted for moving tens of billions of dollars from Turkey to Iran. Reza Zarrab, a dual Iranian-Turkish national, "may have helped Iran pocket more than $100 billion" in illegal transactions. Zarrab said in 2012 that Turkish officials, including within Erdogan's circle, were in on the scheme. Erdogan has cozied up to Russia, and he has said that he trusts Russia as much as he does the West. Turkish exports of military goods to Russia soared in 2023 while Russia embarked on a brutal war of aggression on Ukraine. It was Turkey's initial instinct to block Finland and Sweden from entering and bolstering NATO.

Turkey looked the other way and allowed ISIS fighters to enter Syria during that country's civil war. Turkish officials reportedly purchased oil from ISIS through front companies. Wounded ISIS soldiers were treated in Turkish hospitals. Turkey's human rights record is atrocious, another item that separates it from NATO members in good standing. The Turkish government ethnically cleansed the Kurds of northern Syria, cracked down on Kurdish rights domestically, and threw journalists it did not like into prison.

The think tank Freedom House categorizes Turkey as Not Free. Enough is enough. Turkey's membership in NATO is an embarrassment to the alliance and must be addressed. NATO cannot afford to go along with business as usual while a member's behavior and rhetoric are indistinguishable from those of Russia and Iran. While there is no provision to expel members from NATO, there are other steps the US should take to cold-shoulder Turkey.

The US must develop alternative regional security arrangements that reduce NATO's reliance on Turkey and develop diplomatic efforts with other NATO members to address Turkey's behavior collectively. The US must enhance relations and military cooperation with other regional powers to offset Turkey. Finally, and importantly, the US should monitor and diplomatically address Turkey's internal political developments that conflict with NATO principles, such as its discrimination against Kurds and the jailing of journalists.

Under Erdogan and the AKP, Turkey is no ally. It is past time to recognize this and act accordingly.

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The withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan in August 2021 was an unmitigated disaster that tarnished America's reputation as a global leader. It resulted in the deaths of 13 Americans and 170 Afghans, left hundreds of American citizens behind, and allowed the Taliban to retake control of the country virtually overnight.

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Though America's leadership has recently recovered a bit during the outset of the war in Ukraine, the Israel-Hamas conflict has recently eclipsed Ukraine as the focal point of American foreign policy. The U.S. can regain its leadership credentials by acting incisively in the Middle East.

There are three things that the U.S. can do now to make the Middle East and the world a safer place without going through Congress or spending money.

The first is to re-designate the Houthis as a terrorist organization. The Houthis are an Iranian-backed military group in Yemen that overthrew the country's government in 2014.

Since 2015, the Houthis have been at war against a coalition of countries led by Saudi Arabia that are trying to restore the internationally recognized Yemeni government. With the help of Iran, the Houthis have caused the largest humanitarian crisis in the world.

In February 2021, the Biden administration removed the Houthis as a designated terrorist organization to reduce hostilities and provide aid to the Yemeni people. The crisis in Yemen has only become worse since that decision. The Houthis have become more aggressive, and Hamas' attacks against Israel have emboldened them.

Now the Houthis are launching rockets into Israel, seizing ships near Israeli ports, and they have even recently fired ballistic missiles at three commercial ships in what can only be categorized as a terrorist attack.

The time for consideration is long past. The Houthis have already proven they are terrorists, and America needs to act accordingly.

The second thing the U.S. can do is refreeze Iranian assets. The Biden administration recently unfroze $6 billion of Iranian oil money in exchange for five U.S. prisoners under the condition that the money be used for humanitarian purposes. That money is in a Qatari bank and has yet to be released. There is an additional $10 billion being held in escrow in Iraq.

There can be no doubt that if Iran regains these assets, it will use them to fund terrorism and violence across the world. The Iran nuclear agreement has allowed Iran to continue to build nuclear weapons under the guise of diplomacy. The Biden administration cannot afford to make the same mistake now.

Unless Iran is confronted, they will continue to support Hamas, the Houthis, and a variety of other terror organizations bent on destroying Israel and America.

The third thing that America can do is stop working with the Palestinian Authority. The Biden administration is currently working on a postwar plan that includes the Palestinian Authority taking over leadership of Gaza.

This would be a grave mistake.

The Palestinian Authority has shown time and time again that it is not capable of securing or ruling its current territory in peace.

The Palestinian Authority is essentially a lower-functioning Hamas. They both share the same ideology which denies Israel's right to exist. The only reason the Palestinian Authority has not committed a terrorist act like the one perpetrated by Hamas on October 7 is that they lack the capability.

As with Iran, Biden is hoping for a diplomatic solution with a bad-faith actor with a history of rejecting peace. If the Palestinian Authority takes power, it will only create further conflict and jeopardize the safety of every Israeli.

Right now, President Biden is continuing the same kind of short-sighted policies that caused the Afghanistan disaster. His administration is giving terrorist states and organizations a level of legitimacy that empowers them to commit further violence.

It is time for Biden to step up American leadership and prioritize safety and security over prospective political wins that will just blow up in his face anyway.

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The United Nations' double standard toward Israel has never been more dangerous.

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The guidelines for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which reports on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, "state that human suffering must be addressed wherever it is found." That is why their silence in response to Hamas' devastating attack on Israel is so concerning.

The OCHA's office for the "Occupied Palestinian Territories (OCHA-OPT)" claims to provide "information management services to the humanitarian community." What the international community doesn't know is that the OCHA-OPT continually underreports and ignores Palestinian violence against Israelis. They refuse to hold Hamas accountable for violence against Israelis. The OCHA-OPT's record is even more concerning because of the volume of reports they produce.

A brief glance at the front page of the OCHA-OPT website makes their bias obvious. The source that OCHA-OPT uses for Palestinians' deaths is Gaza's Ministry of Health, which is controlled by Hamas and historically unreliable. Even more egregious, they include the barbaric terrorists that committed pogroms on Israeli soil among the Palestinian casualties, briefly referring to the terrorists, in small text, as "people involved in the 7 October attack."

These are not isolated occurrences. UN reports in recent years showed that violent attacks by Palestinian civilians against Israelis in the West Bank were consistently higher than attacks by Israeli civilians against Palestinians. Perhaps that is why the UN stopped including attacks against Israeli civilians in their reports to the security council after June 2022, while continuing to present the number of attacks against Palestinians. It is likely not a coincidence that a wave of terrorist attacks against Israelis began in March 2022.

After Israel was attacked on October 7, it rightfully decided that Hamas' rule must come to an end. Since Hamas took power in Gaza in 2007, Israel has been subjected to repeated attacks, which have been ignored or downplayed by the OCHA-OPT. When Israel responded with aerial bombardment and limited ground invasions, all aimed at Hamas targets, the OCHA-OPT was quick to supply reports without context, and containing blatant misinformation. They have continued to do so since October 7. It is clear that the OCHA-OPT has no interest in preventing Hamas from taking lives.

Since the massacre on October 7, OCHA-OPT has not published a single report or statement detailing the horrors perpetrated against Israelis. They have instead launched a misguided and harmful campaign detailing the war in Gaza without any context. Israel's pleas for Palestinians to leave the conflict zone have been condemned, while reports that Hamas has prevented civilians who want to leave from doing so have been ignored.

One of Hamas' favorite tactics is to use civilians as part of their terrorist operation. They regularly use schools and hospitals to provide human shields for their bases. By omitting the context for Israel's military actions, namely Hamas terrorism and willingness to sacrifice their own people, the OCHA-OPT are guilty of preventing any objective analysis from the international community. They also effectively encourage Hamas to use civilians as human shields by protecting them from scrutiny.

Many of the numerous people, organizations, and governments who regularly rely on the OCHA-OPT are unaware of how much misinformation they report.

The OCHA-OPT's biases and omissions are causing incalculable damage to Israelis and Palestinians alike.

By cooperating with Hamas, the OCHA-OPT helps perpetuate the rule of a terrorist state, the oppression of Palestinians, and the murder of Israelis. It is time for the OCHA to reassess their reporting on Israel and Gaza in order to ensure the safety and rights of all people affected by this conflict.

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The agreement signed between Saudi Arabia and Iran mediated by China grabbed international headlines last week. While in other countries the event received headlines as a regular news report, in Israel, this news was received differently, in a manner that may be understandable, only contrary to common perception.

Israel has nothing to worry about. The struggle between Israel and Iran is no secret, as is Iran's desire to see Israel destroyed. This is a long-term conflict that also includes other countries as part of a struggle for values ​​and worldviews, with both nations striving to widen the circle of nations that are on their side.

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However, contrary to what many might assume, the agreement between Saudi Arabia and Iran does not mean much in relation to the struggle between Israel and Iran. It is true that Israel looks at any such political agreements through the prism of the conflict with Iran and its interests therein. This is understandable because it is seen as an existential conflict.

For many years, there have been reports of secret ties and shared interests between Saudi Arabia and the Jewish State. Recently, and especially after the signing of the Abraham Accords, and against the background of the conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran, when the Islamic Republic functions as a common enemy, there have been talks, even if unofficial, about making the secret relations more public.

This was the mindset when Donald Trump was in power, and normalization was in the air. Unfortunately, this changed direction with the change of administration in the US.

The US distanced itself from Saudi Arabia after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and perhaps out of a desire for revenge, Saudi Arabia did not comply with the US request to increase oil production and ease the rise of oil prices after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

When Saudi Arabia realized that relations with the US were not improving, it became relevant in the eyes of the rival to America, China. And that's really the story.

In Israel, the agreement between Saudi Arabia and Iran grabbed headlines due to the fear that Iran would become stronger, and progress further on its nuclear program, which is gaining momentum anyway. The assumption is that such an agreement distances the open peace between Saudi Arabia and Israel. However, practically speaking, it will have little effect.

The agreement signed between China-Iran-Saudi Arabia is mainly about China, which wants to strengthen its international status. Saudi Arabia will not stop seeing Iran as a rival and will not end its secret relations with Israel. Perhaps it will take advantage of the situation to reduce the never-ending civil war in Yemen, but this is now China's problem.

In 2011, under Barack Obama, the US adopted a similar policy towards the Saudis, and also then there was an attempt to strengthen relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran. This was also against the backdrop of a Saudi understanding that the US is no longer as relevant a player for it.

The competition between Saudi Arabia and Iran is part of a long-standing struggle that goes to the roots of the enmity between Sunnis and Shiites, and just as previous attempts by the countries to normalize relations between them failed, so this attempt is also expected to fail, or at the very least, not harm Israel's interests.

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Russia and Qatar are at opposite ends of the European natural-gas supply crisis, sparked by fears of a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine. Russia is seen by the West as a provocateur; Qatar is framed as an erstwhile savior, expected to make up for potential Russian losses.

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Counter to this perception, the two countries share indistinguishable policy positions towards Europe and the United States, and their leaders are acting in a similar fashion. Indeed, Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani is as much of a threat to the West as Russian President Vladimir Putin and should be treated as such by US President Joe Biden.

On Monday, Biden was set to host Tamim at the White House; turning to one autocrat to address a problem caused by another tyrant: Putin.

Haggling with dictators to secure the free world's energy supply is bad policy. It upends the West's moral authority and threatens US national security and energy independence. In nearly every transaction between the two nations, America's loss ends up being Qatar's gain.

American energy dominance, with a special focus on increasing liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports, was a key policy goal of the previous US administration. Former President Donald Trump deregulated government interference so that American LNG would be "available to the world" – weakening the power of gas exporting giants such as Russia and Qatar.

As part of his vision, democracies would need to depend less on illiberal authoritarian states for a secure and stable energy supply. Within days of his inauguration, Biden went full throttle and inhibited the planned increase of American natural-gas supplies to global markets through a series of executive orders, undoing Trump's action.

As Berlin faces a Moscow energy boycott and Kyiv a potential Russian invasion, the Biden administration energy reversal has handicapped America's ability to get ahead of the natural-gas dilemma in Europe. Biden's policies are restricting his nation's own domestic-energy development through higher taxes; hampering movement by suspending the transport of LNG on American railways; canceling the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline; and choking the future supply of gas by dropping public investment in new projects. He is thus jeopardizing the creation of new LNG export terminals at home, in Eastern Europe and in the Caribbean.

In the wake of this energy folly, scrambling to secure an offset to Russia's jingoism, his administration looks to a wayward American partner in the Middle East for assistance: Qatar. He will not be hosting one of the Middle East's most deceptive and disreputable rulers, in a last-minute cry for help, ironically calling on Qatar to increase its oil and gas production – something that he wanted to cease as recently as November.

As it relates to their relationships with Biden, Putin and Tamim couldn't be more distinct. Biden has described Putin as having "no soul," has threatened him personally with sanctions and even called him a "killer." He has lauded his personal relationship with Tamim, dined with him during working breakfasts at the White House and explored ways to further US-Qatari ties.

Continuing the pattern, Biden sees Russia's and Qatar's relations with the United States through the same prism: Russia as enemy and Qatar as a friend. Biden condemns Russia's influence operations, warmongering against Ukraine and human rights abuses, both within and beyond its borders.

Conversely, he awarded Qatar's diplomatic handling of the Afghanistan debacle by anointing Doha as the protector of American interests in Kabul, uses Qatar's foreign ministry as a go-between with Iran, and now is hosting its ruler in Washington to ostensibly save Europe from an energy crisis.

While Biden characterizes the Russian bear grimacing towards Ukraine and Europe correctly, at best he fails to see the emir's two-faced gas-export honey trap, due to short-sighted policy ignorance; at worst, he actually believes it's a good idea to prioritize Qatar over the Saudis, Emiratis, Iraqis and Egyptians as America's top Arab ally, warts and all.

What's even more disturbing is that Russia's and Qatar's foreign policy and economic priorities end up aligning more often than not, especially when anathema to American interests. Both engage with the Taliban. They now work together to support the Syrian government. Each has a close relationship with Iran and undermines US interests there. The same can be said of China.

Directly, Qatar is heavily invested in sanctioned Russian banks (VTB Bank), placed an $11.3 billion investment to prop up Russia's gas industry and acquired a significant stake in one of Russia's largest airports. Russia and Qatar are also similar in that that they both threaten the United States' interests and its allies' security. The former is clear about its hostility towards America; the latter is Machiavellian in its influence operations against the US and its leaders.

Russia tried to influence the 2016 and 2020 US presidential elections through unregistered and convicted foreign agents. Beyond Qatar's paying former Trump and Biden administration officials tens of millions of dollars to lobby for its interests, it also had its own share of illegal American agents sent to jail for unauthorized political influence activities on behalf of Doha.

Russia's state propaganda outlet RT was labeled a foreign agent by the US Justice Department. So was Qatar's Al Jazeera, for promoting "political activities" aimed at influencing Americans in the guise of a news organization.

"Journalism designed to influence American perceptions of a domestic policy issue or a foreign nation's activities or its leadership qualifies as 'political activities' under the statutory definition," wrote Jay I. Bratt, the chief of the Justice Department's counterintelligence division, in a letter demanding the designation.

Russia bought the 2018 World Cup; Qatar bribed FIFA officials to secure the 2022 tournament. Then, Attorney General Loretta Lynch called the scheme "corruption that is rampant, systemic and deep-rooted both abroad and here in the United States."

Russia is Europe's worst violator of human rights; Qatar follows in the Middle East with its slave-labor system, as Congressman Jack Bergman (R-Mich.) pointed out, "Their kafala system of abusing and exploiting migrant workers, which amounts to modern slavery in many cases, remains firmly in place."

Putin assassinates critics seeking refuge in countries allied with the United States, imprisons his opposition in gulags in Siberia and hosts American traitors like Edward Snowden in Moscow. Tamim is no better, financing or playing host to terrorist organizations like ISIS, Hezbollah, the Houthis, the Taliban and Hamas, all enemies of the United States and responsible for attacks on America's allies, the deaths of American soldiers and the harming of innocent civilians.

Irrespective of the stark American differences with Qatar and Tamim's similarities with Putin, Biden still invited the chameleon of the Gulf to the White House to save Europe. The Gas Exporting Countries Forum considers Qatar to hold the "world's third-largest natural gas reserves," and identifies the Emirate as the world's "largest supplier of liquefied natural gas."

It currently supplies 5% of its exports to Europe. Most of its long-term energy commitments are geared towards Japan and South Korea, but the country has indicated that it's willing to help offset a Russian gas boycott of Europe.

Unlike the Russians, the Qataris have a unique ability to take America's cake and eat it too. As opposed to the Russian playbook built on aggravated hybrid warfare, the Qataris wield influence by embracing those closest to the president in power. For example, during the Trump administration, Qatar undermined Washington's "maximum pressure" campaign against Iran.

This came as a response to the GCC blockade of Qatar, a move that a few months into office, Trump supported. He pointed out that Middle East leaders accused Qatar of financing radicalism. However, at the end of his administration, the president's national security adviser, Robert O'Brien, embraced Doha in a speech and awarded the Qatari ambassador to the United States the Defense Department's highest civilian medal.

Only the emir knows exactly what he will ask of the president in the Oval Office, but at what price to the United States and its allies, and at what benefit to the Qataris?

First, Qatar will ask the United States to urge Europe to shut down a probe into its anti-competitive market practices by the European Commission. Sure, when the balance is between keeping Europe's lights on and investigating Qatar's cornering of the gas market, national security may have a hedge on economic fairness – temporarily. The long-term consequences of such a move would further entrench Qatar's influence over Europe; embolden Qatar's position in other Europe-interested conflicts, much like in Iran, Afghanistan, Syria and Libya; and add Qatar's energy supplies as a new arrow in Doha's European influence quiver, very much in the same way that the Russians have used gas and the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to blackmail Germany and other European nations.

Second, Doha will use the natural-gas play as a way to further increase its desired most-favored-ally status with the United States and dependence on American officials. The Qataris, almost uniquely, have more than any other country manipulated America's diplomatic follies, national-security blunders and strategic ignorance as a way to enhance their own position vis-à-vis both the Trump and Biden administrations.

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The Qataris will take this opportunity to secure commitments from the United States on a whole range of procurement projects, from purchasing Boeing jetliners to securing commercial spy-plane deals in South Carolina.

But America need not strike another Faustian bargain with Qatar in order to bail out Europe from Russia's energy grip. Biden should reverse his administration's policies that choked LNG development.

In addition to fast-tracking the export of American natural gas to Europe, Biden should bypass Qatar in favor of other friendly gas-exporting nations like Norway, Canada, the Netherlands, Australia, Indonesia, Nigeria, Trinidad and Tobago. The Qataris should be made to answer for their behavior, not rewarded, especially not at the expense of the United States and its allies.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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Last week, during the indirect Israel-Hamas talks in Cairo aimed at a long-term truce, the Islamist terrorist organization took Jerusalem by surprise once again with its demands, not just for a massively unbalanced prisoner swap, but for improved conditions for all Palestinians in Israeli jails.

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A Hamas source told the pan-Arab media outlet Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that the latter issue is near the top of the list of their demands.

Unfortunately, those who were taken by surprise have not been paying attention to just how important the prisoner issue is to the Palestinians, to the point where it is in many cases the focal point and symbol of "resistance" for its leaders.

Palestinian society views its prisoners in Israeli jails as soldiers on the frontlines of the violent rejectionism that has characterized the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for more than a century.

Palestinian terrorists sitting in Israeli jails are lionized and paid handsomely for their "sacrifice." The so-called "pay for slay" stipends to prisoners and their families are seen as vital for the Palestinian Authority.

As PA leaders have repeatedly said, the prisoners are at the forefront of their conflict against the Jewish state. PA leader Mahmoud Abbas has stated repeatedly: "If we had only a single penny left, we would pay it to families of the martyrs and prisoners."

In July, at a ceremony honoring terrorists in Israeli prisons, he called them "pioneers" and "stars in the firmament of the Palestinian people's struggle."

This is why the Israel Victory Project (IVP) sees the issue and conditions of Palestinian prisoners as central to their leaders' violent rejectionism, the continuation of terrorist activities and the conflict.

Only last week, IVP placed stickers – depicting Palestinian terrorists escaping from tunnels – outside the Israel Prison Service headquarters in Ramle. The action was taken to protest the lenient conditions of convicted terrorists in Israeli prisons, allowing them to continue to conduct terrorist activities and permitting them to escape relatively easily, as was evident in the recent breakout from the Gilboa Prison.

Palestinian terrorists are seen as heroes in the PA, and their easy conditions and continued activities inspire the next generation of terrorists, placing the lives of Israelis at risk.

Rather than transforming a terrorist into a defeated supplicant, Israeli prisons permit extraordinary comforts and benefits to their prisoners, even allowing some to carry on their involvement in terror from behind bars. This provides them with the continued hope of escape or exchange.

Israel should therefore look to its prisons as a possible avenue to break the Palestinian rejectionists' will to continue fighting. Taking far tougher measures against terrorists in Israel's prisons will have a deflating effect on Palestinian society, and force the much-needed message that terrorism and violence do not pay.

Unfortunately, many Israelis, at least until the escape of six prisoners from the Gilboa Prison – including arch-terrorist Zakaria Zubeidi, former leader of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades – saw this issue as minimal. They assume that once behind bars, these terrorists are outside of the conflict and pose no danger.

They do not see or understand the symbolism that the prisoners hold. Their steadfastness or perseverance in jail is seen as a model for the Palestinian cultural value, ideological theme and political strategy of sumud (Arabic for "steadfast perseverance.")

To break sumud, which underpins every violent action against the Jewish state, the prisoners' will to carry on or persevere must be broken.

This means that Israel should tighten restrictions and remove the benefits that enable many to earn university diplomas, father children and, in Marwarn Barghouti's case, run a quasi-empire from his jail cell, where he meets and greets dignitaries.

Barghouti's is a terrible paradigm for a situation in which he is still seen as a popular leader whose advice will be sought and his demands enacted, despite the fact that he is a convicted serial murderer.

If Israel wishes to break the hope of people like Barghouti to return to his bloody activities, it is going about it the wrong way. Previous prisoner swaps have demonstrated that many are recidivist terrorists, and releasing a single Palestinian prisoner endangers Israeli lives.

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Israel should take the opposite stand to that of the Palestinians. As long as the prisoners are lionized and acclaimed, Israel should make sure that they are humbled. If they or their family receive funds, then all their benefits should be removed. They should have no hope of escape, release or being part of a prisoner swap.

Once they are captured and convicted of terrorist activities, they should feel the cold reality of personal failure and defeat. This should be the end of the road for each and every one of them in their bloody activities.

This should be done in the hope that their defeat, despair and surrender to reality will permeate Palestinian society as a whole, especially its leadership. Only then can this conflict be over, once and for all.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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In a speech to the House of Commons in 1952, Winston Churchill said, "A prisoner of war is a man who tries to kill you and fails, and then asks you not to kill him."

Israel's prisons currently hold thousands of Palestinian terrorists, none of whom need to beg for their life because they know that while Israel theoretically has the death penalty, it has never used it against mass murderers of their ilk.

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In fact, rather than transforming a terrorist into a defeated supplicant, Israeli prisons permit extraordinary comforts and benefits to its prisoners, and even allows some to carry on their involvement in terror, even from behind bars.

The recent escape of six prisoners from the Gilboa Prison, including arch-terrorist Zakaria Zubeidi, former leader of the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades in Jenin, amply demonstrates how far the system has fallen into disrepute.

A series of failures led to the audacious but successful breakout from the prison in northern Israel. Of course, any system can have failures, but in this respect, some of them were directly related to the pliability of the Israeli prison system.

One of these examples was the request by Zubeidi for a transfer into the cell where the five other prisoners were located a day before the escape, which was accepted without any red flags raised.

That chief terrorists can ask to change cells as though they were summer camp bunks is hardly the most egregious failing.

According to Palestinian Media Watch, terrorist prisoners and their lawyers appear to have almost unlimited freedom to smuggle materials in and out of the prisons. Many are able to study for academic degrees, and some have even managed to smuggle out their sperm and father scores of children.

Convicted murderers like Marwan Barghouti are provided with enough comfort that they manage to run a quasi-political empire from their cells, with important figures visiting them regularly. These are just some of the leniencies and gaps that have been exploited by the prisoners.

While for many Israelis, these are relatively trifling issues – until the current escape – Palestinian society views its prisoners in Israeli jails as soldiers on the frontlines of the violent rejectionism that has characterized the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for more than a century.

Palestinian terrorists sitting in Israeli jails are lionized and paid handsomely for their "sacrifice." The so-called "pay for slay" stipends to prisoners and their families are seen as vital for the Palestinian Authority.

In 2018, under pressure from the West to end the terror payments, PA leader Mahmoud Abbas was unrepentant. "Even if we have only a penny left, we will give it to the martyrs, the prisoners and their families," he said. "We view the prisoners and the martyrs as planets and stars in the skies of the Palestinian struggle, and they have priority in everything."

Abbas has also voiced praise for the prisoners' movement, saying it was "paving the way for the independence of Palestine."

For Palestinians, the terrorists in Israeli prisons are not POWs who are defeated and made to stay out the rest of the war. They remain in the field of conflict, making every effort to escape, rioting and threatening Israeli authorities continually. It's no coincidence that the release of prisoners is always at the top of any Palestinian wish list, whether that of Hamas, Fatah or Islamic Jihad, in negotiations with Israel.

Israel should therefore look to its prisons as a possible avenue to break the Palestinian rejectionists' will to continue fighting. Taking far tougher measures against terrorists in Israel's prisons will have a deflating effect on Palestinian society, and force the much-needed message that terrorism and violence do not pay.

Many of the rights that these prisoners assume are sacrosanct may be suspended if the authorities believe there is just cause on the basis of "security reasons," even according to the Geneva Convention. Thus, Israel has the legal possibility to suspend many of the privileges and pampering that the prisoners receive.

The escape of Zubeidi and his five accomplices is a major breach of Israel's security and could have resulted in a massive loss of life. Israeli authorities are thus well within their rights to suggest that until the country can be sure that there will be no more breaches from its prisons, it can take draconian measures against the terrorists behind bars.

Demoralizing the prisoners will have the desired effect on the Palestinian leadership, which sees these people as heroes to be emulated. They have to be broken, defeated, even humiliated, if necessary.

Defeating the spirit of captured terrorists can become a springboard for the ultimate defeat of Palestinian rejectionism, and an Israel victory.

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These are not run-of-the-mill prisoners, but generals and foot soldiers in a war against the Jewish state. They tried to kill us and now seek and receive our good graces.

Israel might be reluctant to use its death penalty, but it can still make the lives of the Palestinian terrorists in its jails miserable, despondent and hopeless. It must break their will to see themselves as combatants in an ongoing conflict.

They have to be made to understand that their capture is a one-way ticket to abject defeat. This way, the message will eventually trickle down to those who sent them to do their deadly work.

Gregg Roman is the director of the Middle East Forum.

JNS.org contributed to this report.

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Unlike the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, which is dedicated to helping the world's refugees, the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, the agency dedicated solely to Palestinian refugees, has created its own unique definition of who is considered a Palestinian refugee. As a result of UNRWA's criteria, there are now around 5.3 million Palestinian refugees around the world. This definition is significant in that it ensures the number of refugees will continue to grow and so make a solution to the conflict ever more elusive.

Furthermore, instead of incentivizing initiatives that promote a culture of peace among Palestinians and pouring money into purely humanitarian efforts, UNRWA works to create and cultivate a victimhood mentality in Palestinian society through ongoing incitement and the rejection of peace. In UNRWA-run schools, students are taught to believe they will one day be able to "return" to all the lands of Israel and bring an end to the Jewish state. Here, too, the dangerous irony of a humanitarian organization, which, instead of solving the refugee problem, in fact, works to ensure its perpetuation, is apparent.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' recent remarks against Zionism and the Jews' right to self-determination make it clear that Palestinian recalcitrance is the root of the conflict. As with every other conflict in human history, this conflict will end only when the side that created it is willing to abandon its grandiose ambitions. This position has recently been presented in the Middle East Forum's Israel Victory Project, which calls for the suspension of diplomatic ties with the Palestinians until they renounce their efforts to bring an end to the Jewish state. In addition, the Middle East Forum calls for major reforms to UNRWA so as to separate its political efforts from the agency's humanitarian mission.

The United States' definition of a refugee is similar to that of other counties. According to this accepted definition, refugee status is not passed down by inheritance and is not valid for those persons who are citizens of other countries or who live in what is supposedly their own territory. In contrast, more than 2 million Palestinian "refugees" live in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip, lands they claim constitute part of their territorial homeland.

If we remove from UNRWA's list of refugees those people who do not meet any of the three criteria, we will then come back to a more reasonable number of somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000 Palestinian refugees from the 1948 War of Independence. The remainder could, of course, request humanitarian aid, but they would not be considered refugees by UNRWA.

If the countries of the world are interested in funding genuine humanitarian aid for the Palestinians, this can be done through a variety of alternative channels, whose aim is to create a better future for the population. But first, they must stop using the term "refugees." This is not just a question of semantics: A change in terminology could give the Palestinians hope for a better future instead of ensuring they maintain the victimhood mentality and pass it on to future generations. Second, they must only release funds for the Palestinians on the condition they are then integrated into their host countries or alternatively, those Palestinians living outside Judea, Samaria Gaza find a third country to which to emigrate. Third, they must ensure the funds do not go toward terrorism and incitement.

The implementation of these steps will lead the PA to acknowledge its defeat in the war against the Jewish people's right to self-determination and will put an end to the Palestinian leadership's cynical use of their people and their supporters for the prevention of a solution to the conflict and finally bring about peace.

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