'Netanyahu to announce renewal of PA tax transfers'

PMO official says Palestinians slowing unilateral actions so transfers can resume; Netanyahu: Islamic wave is sweeping the region.

By LAHAV HARKOV
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu at FADC 311 (photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu at FADC 311
(photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
Prime Minister Binyamin was expected to tell the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Monday he is considering renewing the transfer of tax funds to the Palestinian Authority. Israel stopped the transfers last month after the Palestinians were accepted as a full member to the UN's cultural agency.
An official close to the Prime Minister's Office said that the Palestinians have slowed down their unilateral actions, which was a major part of the new consideration.
RELATED:'Israeli withholding of tax funds incapacitating PA' Vice PM: Libya is new source for smuggled arms to Gaza
Speaking to the committee, Netanyahu warned that an "Islamic wave" is washing over the Arab world. "This is not good for us."
Following decades of military rule in the Arab world, "We have an unstable reality ahead of us," he added
Because it is not possible to know how long it will take until the region stabilizes, the prime minister said, "We must behave cautiously. This is not the time for hasty actions."
In post-Gaddafi Libya, he said, "there is a large stockpile of weapons that is leaking out (of the country) and reaching our area," something he said has ramifications on Israel's security needs.
Addressing the situation in Egypt, which on Monday began holding its first parliamentary elections since the fall of former president Hosni Mubarak, Netanyahu said, "We hope to stabilize the peace treaty and we are working on that with the Americans."
JPost.com staff contributed to this report