These Europeans - are they so very generous, or what? Urgently forwarding a sum to pay the salaries of the Palestinian Authority employees, because our minister of finance doesn't pass on to the Palestinians the money which is theirs.
Custom tax revenues on goods entering the Palestinian territories are being collected by Israel, under the Oslo Agreement - as the Palestinians don't control their own borders. Yuval Steinitz, the man placed by Netanyahu in charge of Israel's Ministry of Finance, had an instant punitive reaction to the Palestinians daring to reach a unity agreement, the temerity not to stay divided as so well suited the policy of Israel's government. Imagine: a good guy who could always be accused of being too weak, vs a bad guy who could always be accused of being a heinous terrorist. So, whenever pressure mounted to end the occupation we always waved the trump card: 'There is no partner!'. But meanwhile President Abbas' star is rising: the UN Statehood Recognition Campaign goes well towards September, and now he seems also to be domesticating Hamas into recognition of the '67 borders.
Actually, the Europeans don't have to worry too much: they could get their money back. They just have to ask their Quartet partner in Washington DC to deduct the sum from the billions which Israel gets annually...
