Free Republic

Globes, Israel's business newspaper, reports that Finance Minister Netanyahu made what it calls his "first operational decision since taking office" earlier this week when he authorized the withholding of $7.7 million in tax payments to the Palestinian Authority to cover unpaid sewage treatment bills. The Ministry of National Infrastructures, now headed by the Shinui party's Yosef Paritzky, recommended this move. This is the first time the Ministry of Finance has withheld money from the PA for this purpose. Israel collects tax monies for the PA, and then periodically transfers some of the funds to the PA. Calls have often been...