Taylor Force, who was murdered in a Palestinian stabbing attack in Tel Aviv in March 2016. Photo: Facebook.

President-elect Donald Trump should back legislation that would cut off US funding to the Palestinian Authority if it continues to pay monetary rewards to terrorists and their families, the Wall Street Journal declared on Sunday.

“The truth is these payments are blood-soaked gifts from a Palestinian leadership still devoted more to destroying Israel than to building a Palestinian state,” the Wall Street Journal said in an editorial. “This has always been the chief impediment to peace. Mr. Obama is unlikely to act in his final days, but the Trump Administration and new Congress could send a powerful message by passing the Taylor Force Act” — a reference to a bill introduced in September by Republican Senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Dan Coats of Indiana and Roy Blunt of Missouri.

In a late September interview with The Algemeiner ahead of the unveiling of the legislation, Graham said he was “hoping to start a debate that is long overdue.”

“We’ve got to go ahead and put sunlight on this problem,” he stated. “The PA incentivizes young Palestinians to commit acts of terror…American dollars are going to a government that literally rewards people for killing their neighbors. And until we get that addressed, I don’t think the peace process will ever move forward.”

Speaking with The Algemeiner in mid-September, Coats called the PA’s actions “morally repugnant,” saying they “must be stopped.”

“To provoke, reward and incentivize terrorist acts through financial rewards is one of the most outrageous things I’ve ever come across,” he said.

Taylor Force was the 28-year-old West Point graduate murdered in a stabbing attack carried out by a Palestinian terrorist in Tel Aviv in March. In an interview with The Algemeiner after the Taylor Force bill was announced, Force’s father, Stuart, said he was appreciative that it was named after his late son.

“The bottom line is that the situation is degenerating over there and it’s time to address the issue,” he said.