>> you are watching c-span2 with politics and public affairs be weekdays between live coverage of the u.s.-centric on weeknights watch key public policy depends a good weekend the latest nonfiction authors and books on booktv. you can see past programs and get our schedules at our website and get to join in the conversation on social media sites. >> women's history for beginners is the booktv book club selection for the month of february. go to booktv.org, you'll see right at the top there is a tab that says bookclub and you can purchase abate in our discussiodiscussio n at the booktv.org. we will be posting video and reviews and articles up there tomorrow. so the discussion will begin tomorrow. will also be posting on a regular basis discussions, question. hope you can participate. bonnie morris is women history for beginners is our february 2014 book club selection on booktv.

>> we are spending a lot of money in this country to assist peace and reconciliation in israel. because that is the american goal. that is an american value. but it turns out that might investigation documents that taxpayer money is actually financing the flames of confrontation and even terrorism. i'm going to be briefing today on policy on what is wrong with american policy, what is wrong with american legislation and what we can do about it. i'm going to start with one of the most astonishing facts that i found. american taxpayer money is fungible he financing terrorist

salaries of palestinian terrorists who are convicted and serving time in israeli prisons. and the more heinous their crimes, the more of your money they are getting. here's how it works. is a palestinian terrorist commits an act of terror against innocent civilians, say a family or a bus with a bomb or even just telling someone with a knife, that person immediately goes on official palestinian authority salary. and that salary escalates under a law, a palestinian law called the law of the prisoner. and the more heinous the crime, the more money a palestinian gets. and these amounts to some of the

best salaries and the best compensation and the palestinian authority. we are talking about thousands of dollars a year. and we're talking about thousands of dollars each month. now, here's how it works. how do they decide what's the most heinous crime? they let the israelis decide. it depends upon the prison sentence. so that sliding scale involves so much money for one year of prison, five years of prison, 10 years of prison, and even 30 years of prison. this money is paid directly to the prisoner during his time in prison. it's a reward for the act of terrorism. the prisoners provide with the poa, power of attorney, and he transmits that money withholding or spending to his wife, his girlfriend, his family, his

buddies, his organization, in some cases it's the plo. in some cases it's another terror cell. and where is this money coming from? the pa. is constantly in the red, and it draws this money from donor countries such as the united states. this constitutes approximately four to $7 million a month, and about 6% of the entire palestinian economy. and it's a prioritized amount of money. that means if they get $1 million in the bank and they have starving kids on the one hand, they will pay the prisoners of salaries first and they will take care of the starving kids later. it's a priority. they have their own ministry, the palestinian ministry of

prisoners who voted to overseeing and executing this program. and they have a quasigovernmental or decision called the prisoners club that make sure that if anyone tries to allocate money in a way that will circumvent the obligation to pay the prisoner, this prisoners club will agitate within the palestinian community. more than that, any attempt to stop that money will be chopped down by the so-called arab street. this is not a secret program. this is a proud program. this is a program that the palestinians considered to be precious. not only do the individuals get a stipend for an act of terrorism, that stipend is

actually linked to a rank in the palestinian authority. and if the crime is heinous enough, they make the guy equivalent to an honorary deputy minister. so you can go from rags to riches, and from being a nobody to a famous person in the palestinian authority just by blowing up a bus or stabbing an individual. that happened when i was there. this spring, i was told, well, that hasn't been a lot of violence in this area for quite a while, not serious but and there was a medical clown, and this person spent all this time, to the best of his ability giving medical therapy, cloud therapy, the victims of terrorism. and not only just the israeli kids, but palestinian kids,

everyone who comes along. this man was just standing at a bus stop, and the palestinian plan, took a bus down to the junction, had a knife in his bag, walked up to the man and stabbed him. and he died and he was right on the street. that man knew he would not be shot on the spot, because he knew that once he put his weapon down, the israeli police would not shoot to kill. he knew that once he went to prison, or once he was sentenced, or once he got into the criminal justice program, his family would become revered, they would become heroes. in fact, they did the, celebrities. and most of all, he knows that he's not going to serve 10, 15,

20 years. he knows that in the near future he is going to be on the list for another prisoner swap, whether that is the next -- or whether that is the person they were planning to kidnap just days ago when they discovered a major tunnel in gaza it was big enough to drive a mack truck through. are whether that involves the simple act of we're not going to come back and talk of the table unless we get 400 prisoners at least. and these prisoners are not auto thieves and bank robbers. the law specifically defines this as those who have committed acts against the israeli presence. >> you can watch this and other programs online at booktv.org.

>> you have been watching booktv, 48 hours of programming beginning saturday morning at eight eastern through monday morning at eight eastern. nonfiction books all weekend every weekend right here on c-span2. .. >> the house gavels in today at noon eastern for general speeches before it begins