The decision by Israel’s security cabinet to implement the law enabling Israel to freeze the monies of the Palestinian Authority is one of the most explosive in Israel's recent history. The law enables Israel to deduct funds paid to Palestinian assailants in Israeli prisons from tax revenues collected by Israel on behalf of the Palestinian administration. The bill was adopted by the Knesset eight months ago but then disappeared into Israel’s bureaucratic passages — and for good reason. The political leadership, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at its head, likely understood its dangerous potential and decided to delay its implementation. But then came early elections.

The power-intoxicated Israeli right and the squabbles between Netanyahu, the New Right party and HaBayit HaYehudi over that constituency drowned out the defense system's warnings. The tremendous pressure from the right impelled Netanyahu to implement the law lest he pay a hefty electoral price. It wasn’t long before someone leaked information that Education Minister Naftali Bennett yelled at Shin Bet head Nadav Argaman during the cabinet meeting called to discuss the law's implementation.

On a moral level, the decision is absolutely justified. It allows Israel to deduct a sum of money from the taxes it collects for the PA that is equal to the sum that the Authority transfers to those imprisoned in Israel for attacking Israelis. The generous payments encourage terror and support attackers' families while they are imprisoned. Now Israel will be able to deduct this money from the funds that it sends to the Authority. Poetic justice.

However, in the Middle East, not everything that is ethical or moral is the correct (or smart) course of action. The problem, a high-level Israeli security figure told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, is the "accumulation of blows that have landed on the Palestinian Authority over the last year.” The concern is that the deductions, about half a billion shekels ($138,000) a year, may inflict the PA’s final death blow. Even if not, it is clear that a furious President Mahmoud Abbas will take out his anger on the Gaza Strip. He will pass on the deductions from the money that the PA is required to give Gaza. Thus Israel, which transfers Qatari money to the Strip every month with one hand, will prompt an even higher deduction in funds for the Strip with the other hand. “The situation in the Strip is explosive even without this new dictum. It could be that we are viewing the spark that will light the Gaza powder keg,” warned the source.