After Tel Aviv attack, security cabinet said set to delay moves to prop up PA
Biden administration said leaning on Israel to strengthen Palestinian Authority, but official reportedly says steps unlikely to pass in current atmosphere
Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter
The security cabinet will reportedly not reach a decision on Sunday regarding a series of measures meant to prop up the Palestinian Authority in the wake of a deadly terrorist attack in Tel Aviv a day earlier.
The forum of senior ministers was slated to debate a raft of policies that were formulated by National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi and head of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Ghassan Alian, Channel 12 news reported.
“This is not the right atmosphere to bring it to the cabinet table,” an Israeli official told Channel 12, adding that it would have a harder time garnering support, in an apparent reference to the terror attack a day earlier in which municipal security officer Chen Amir, 42, was shot and killed by a Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror gunman.
At the same time, the official pledged, the measures would come up for approval in the near future, possibly even this week.
Other Hebrew-language outlets, including Walla and Channel 13, reported that the topic would be discussed Sunday but that no decision would be made.
The Prime Minister’s Office declined to comment on the report.
The delay could add to existing strains on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government’s relations with Washington.
US officials over the weekend told their Israeli counterparts that US President Joe Biden expects Jerusalem to approve measures to prop up the PA, according to Channel 13 news.
The US is reportedly especially interested in seeing the cancellation of a decision to redirect the tax revenue Israel collects for the PA to families of Israeli terror victims.
In January, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich signed a decree to redirect NIS 139 million ($39.6 million) in PA tax revenue, as part of punitive measures against the PA’s international legal action against Israel.
Israel has made such deductions in the past, following 2018 legislation on the matter, but only partially upholds the policy, as officials are keenly aware that the PA is dangerously close to financial collapse.
The Palestinian Authority is also eager to see new measures approved this week.
The PA told Israel recently that it would not attend the next regional security summit if the cabinet rejects the proposal, the Kan public broadcaster reported Sunday.
Israel, the PA, Jordan, Egypt, and the US convened in two such summits in February and March, and have been discussing bringing the sides together again.
The PA is not likely to offer an official response to the cabinet’s decision to delay approving the measures, said Kobi Michael, senior research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv.
“They don’t want to be seen as running after Israeli offers and at its mercy,” Michael explained. “At most, they’ll call it another expression of Israeli extremism and the influence of the far-right on the government.”
In July, the security cabinet voted in favor of a series of steps to bolster the PA, including the approval of a new industrial zone in Tarqumiyah, near the southern West Bank city of Hebron, a move long supported by Israeli security officials, and the extension of hours at the Allenby border crossing with Jordan.
The cabinet was also said to have debated economic measures including easing the schedule for PA debt payments to Israel, and the restoration of VIP permits for senior PA officials. The permits were canceled by the government in January in response to the UN General Assembly’s approval of a resolution promoted by the Palestinians requesting that the International Court of Justice weigh in on the conflict.
At the same time, it is unclear whether there has been real movement to implement the policies, or whether they were mostly declaratory.
The July decision came weeks after Netanyahu pledged that Israel will work to develop a natural gas field for the benefit of Palestinians off the coast of the Gaza Strip, a proposal that has been repeatedly floated for more than two decades.
The move is seen as an olive branch to the Palestinians and, if carried out, would bring in billions of shekels to the PA.
Michael, former deputy director general and head of the Palestinian desk at the Strategic Affairs Ministry, told The Times of Israel that despite the PA’s economic frailty and mutual distrust of the Netanyahu government, it will continue to cooperate with Israel on the security front.
“The PA will continue to be challenged by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad acorrs the West Bank, and will keep working to repress them with Israeli help,” he said. “This is an extremely deep and vital joint interest in the PA’s eyes for its very survival.”
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