Israel will not transfer much-needed funds to the Palestinian Authority in the wake of the decision by three European countries to recognize a Palestinian state, the country’s finance minister said on Wednesday, as its foreign minister denounced the European moves as giving “a gold medal to Hamas terrorists.”
The decision by the finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, a far-right leader who opposes Palestinian sovereignty, threatened to push the Palestinian government into a deeper fiscal crisis. He said in a statement that he had informed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he would no longer send tax revenues to the authority, which administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank in close cooperation with Israel.
Mr. Smotrich’s office signaled that the decision was at least partly a response to Spain, Norway and Ireland recognizing Palestinian statehood, and that the Palestinian leadership bore responsibility for campaigning for the move.
It’s not just Jewish lobbyists. Arguably more important is the Zionist Christian fundamentalists in the US who think they are hastening the rapture and the apocalypse.
I don’t think that’s arguable at all. The impact of the hundreds of millions of dollars that AIPAC has spent is by far and away the largest problem. In fact its quite likely that it’s their money that’s keeping the “Zionist Christians” on the boil and in office to begin with. Take away that delicious AIPAC money and the support of “Zionist Christians” will quickly dwindle.
One of the very first proponents of Zionism was an American evangelist in the 1890’s named William Blackstone who circulated a petition in support of creating a Jewish state in Palestine. He collected signatures from “431 prominent citizens…” Including: