As you may know, the Israelis transfer monies collected for customs and other tax levies that Israel collects on behalf of the 'Palestinians' under the interim peace agreements.
The Israelis have informed the PA that its allying itself with Hamas has ended that , as the Israelis have no intention of funding Hamas and if the 'Palestinians' are going to modify agreements, it works both ways.
In an interview with Army Radio Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz said he had suspended the handover of 300 million shekels ($88 million) to the PA.
Steinitz was very plain about the fact that the Israeli government has no intention of funding Hamas, giving new and painful meaning to Netanyahu's statement that the 'Palestinian Authority ' could have peace with Israel or the genocidal Hamas, but not both.
The Israelis turn over an average of $1 to $1.4 billion per year to Abbas, not an insignificant amount. Oddly enough, that's almost exactly what the Palestine Investment Fund, a hedge fund for Fatah started by Yasser Arafat net's annually for Fatah.
It was created out of money skimmed off of what was supposed to be aid for the 'Palestinians' given by their gullible western donors, and even Selim Fayyad, 'Palestine's' unelected prime minister estimated in a report to the world bank that something like 45% of the PA's budgewt ended up being stolen of diverted.
At any rate, this is a superb way for the Israelis to let the 'Palestinians' know that they aren't going to be able to have their felafel and eat it too, and it should have happened a long time ago.
Israel can put the money into a fund to compensate the victims and families of the Palestinian war on Israel's civilians, like the Fogel Family.
All in all, some good news to start the week with.
(Todah and a hit tip to Carl for bringing this to my attention)
I agree this is a good start but more needs to be done. If people were launching attacks against America from Mexico, how long do you think the American government or the American people would tolerate such a thing before they stopped sending money to Mexico. I suspect American tolerance of such a situation would be far shorter than Israel's has been. Israelis truly have the "patience of Job." I'm not sure how or why they do it.
ReplyDeleteNow what needs to happen is all aid to the PA and the Palestinians needs to be cut off or at the very least it needs to be subject to stringent conditions much like the aid Israel receives from America is. By getting rid of the massive amounts of unconditional aid the Palestinians receive from America and Europe this would place them on a more equal footing with the Israelis. When this happens, they just might be more open to good faith negotiations with Israel. As it is right now, they hold lopsided advantages over Israel. There's no real incentive for them to negotiate.