The Israeli government has decided it will no longer remain passive as the Palestinian Authority conducts diplomatic and legal warfare against it, as at the UN with the just-adopted resolution asking the International Court of Justice to rule on Israel’s “annexation” and “occupation” of Palestinian territories.
Instead, it has passed a series of measures to punish the PA. First, the Israeli government will withhold $40 million USD from the PA, money from the import taxes it collects for the PA and in the past simply handed over; now that $40 million will be distributed to victims of Palestinian terror.
The Biden administration describes these actions as a bad thing:
US State Department spokesman Ned Price on Monday described a series of Israeli measures meant to curb and punish Palestinian terrorism as a “unilateral move” that “exacerbates tensions.”
Of course, anything Israel does – whether the IDF tracks down terrorists to their lairs in Nablus and Jenin, or Ben Gvir takes a 13-minute walk around the perimeter of the Temple Mount, or Israel withholds transferring funds to the PA in the exact amount that the PA gives to terrorists and their families – will “exacerbate tensions” with the PA. So what?
America gives aid to Ukraine that “exacerbates tensions” with Russia; should it therefore stop such aid? America is building up Taiwan’s military; this “exacerbates tensions” with Communist China. Should we therefore stop?