Now Terror Leader Mahmoud Abbas Won’t Accept Any Tax Money From Israel 

The Palestinian Authority gives lots of money to Arab terrorists, if they are in prison, and to their families, if they are dead. It’s a very generous amount, more than any of those terrorists could ever have earned by working. And the more people they kill, the more money they receive. These “martyrs” have, according to Mahmoud Abbas, committed inspiring acts of derring-do. Do you need a few examples? There were the terrorists who back in 1974 took over an elementary school in Ma’alot, and with grenades and machine guns murdered 25 children. There were the terrorists who hijacked a bus in what is known as the Coastal Road Massacre, in which 38 Israelis, including 13 children, were killed, and 71 were wounded. There was the suicide bombing at the Sbarro Pizzeria, in downtown Jerusalem, in which 15 civilians were killed, including 7 children and a pregnant woman, and 130 wounded. There was the suicide bombing at a hotel, in Netanya, during a Passover seder. Thirty civilians were killed in the attack and 140 were injured. Here’s just one more: Samir Kuntar and his team broke into an apartment building and kidnapped a father, 31-year-old Danny Haran, and his 4-year-old daughter, Einat, taking them to a nearby beach. According to eyewitnesses and forensic reports, Kuntar shot Danny to death at close range, and then killed the girl Einat by smashing her skull against the rocks with the butt of his rifle. During the attack, Smadar Haran accidentally suffocated her two-year-old daughter Yael to death while attempting to quiet her whimpering, which would have revealed their hiding place.

So many acts of bravery! So many acts of derring-do! So many terrorists and their family members for Mahmoud Abbas to reward.

Israel collects tax money on imports meant for the Palestinian Authority, and scrupulously transfers what it collects to the P.A. In the last few months, however, after years of demanding that Abbas stop his “Pay-for-Slay” Program that provided lifetime payments to terrorists and their families from the “Martyr’s Fund,” Israel finally started to deduct from the taxes transferred the exact amount that Abbas was paying those “martyrs” and their families. Abbas railed against this “unfair” policy, and insisted he would not accept any tax money transferred to the P.A. by Israel unless it were for the full amount, without any deductions. Then, after his tantrum, Abbas quietly yielded, again accepting from Israel the taxes it collected on behalf of the P.A., minus the amounts deducted because of his continued “Pay-For-Slay”program.

Now, however, he has gone back to his policy of cutting-off-his-nose-to-spite-his-face. Mahmoud Abbas has been on a tear, announcing that all agreements with Israel, of whatever kind, are now at an end, including cooperation on security matters that has benefited both sides. In early June, he went even further, and has now announced he will no longer accept any taxes collected by Israel for the PA.

The story, at Jewish News, is here:

The Palestinian Authority is refusing to accept the taxes collected for it by Israel….

A Palestinian Authority spokesman said it rejected the May levies “in compliance with the leadership decision to stop all forms of coordination with Israel,” Reuters reported….

Tantrums seem to be getting the better of Abbas. He now proclaims to the world he is prepared to do without any of the taxes collected by Israel on behalf of the P.A. Let’s do a little calculation. Israel collects $190 million a month in taxes on behalf of the Palestinians. Prime Minister Netanyahu has said that the Pay-For-Slay program pays out $350 million a year; that means about $28 million a month is now deducted by Israel from the total of $190 million it collects each month, and so the amount of $162 million a month had recently been transferred to the Palestinian Authority.

That’s about $2 billion a year that Abbas now claims he is willing to forgo to make a point, to stand on principle.. He’s very mad at Israel and at the United States, and he’s not going to take it any more..He doesn’t want that $50 billion the Palestinians have been promised under the Trump Plan. He’ll show the Americans. We Palestinians are a proud people. And he doesn’t want the $2 billion Israel could now be transferring to the P.A. every year. We’re cutting all ties with the Zionists, proclaims an infuriated Mahmoud Abbas. That’ll show them. We don’t want a cent of that $2 billion. We Palestinians are a proud people.

That Palestinian pride goeth before a pretty great fall. Abbas is now cutting an even more ridiculous figure than usual on the world stage. Of course he can afford, can’t he, not to care if the people he rules over – the Palestinians in the West Bank – become more impoverished because he’s turning down that $50 billion promised under the Trump Plan, and that $2 billion in taxes that he’s now refusing to take from Israel. It’s easy to take a stand on “principle” when you’re not the one suffering. And Mahmoud Abbas, and his two grasping sons Tarek and Nasser, have managed to amass a private fortune of more than $400 million dollars. They’ve got theirs. Why should they care about anyone else?

And one more question is still bothering me. What exactly is that “principle” on which Mahmoud Abbas is taking his stand? I know there must be one, but I just can’t figure out what it could be.