(American Interest) Walter Russell Mead - The Israeli government has announced it will turn tax revenues over to the Palestinian Authority, allowing the Palestinians to meet payroll and cover some other basic expenses. Holding the payments back was Israel's response to the Palestinian quest for statehood at the UN. The key difference between states and other entities is sovereignty: the ability and power to manage their own affairs. The Palestinians do not collect their own taxes; handouts from donors and the delivery of tax receipts from Israel keep the PA alive. An authority that must beg for the money that keeps it alive may call itself a state, and may for political reasons be called a state by other people, but as a matter of fact and truth it is a dependency rather than a country. By withholding money from the PA, Israel was delivering a pointed reminder that the Palestinians can only have a state as a result of Israeli actions. And there is no way to actual, as opposed to nominal, statehood except through negotiations with the neighbors.
2011-12-02 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive