On Friday, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich rejected the idea that the United States and its President Joe Biden would control the fate of Israel, stressing that he would not release the Palestinian Authority’s funds as long as he was in government.

“We respect the United States and its president, but we will never leave our fate in the hands of foreigners,” Smotrich said, adding: “Not a single shekel will go to terrorists in Gaza as long as I remain in office.”

This comes as American media revealed a “difficult” phone conversation that Biden had with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, last weekend, regarding the decision to withhold part of the taxes it collects for the Palestinian Authority.

An American official told Axios that this part of the call was one of the "difficult and most frustrating conversations," noting that it was "a sign of the growing tensions between Biden and Netanyahu."

According to the site, Netanyahu is facing pressure from the Biden administration to release the funds, and opposition from Smotrich, who threatened to resign, which could put the coalition government in danger.

According to officials, Biden asked Netanyahu to accept the proposal that he himself had put forward several weeks ago, which is to transfer the withheld tax revenues to Norway for safekeeping until an arrangement is reached that would allay Israel’s fears that the money would reach Hamas.

An American official said that the Palestinian Authority had already accepted this proposal, but Netanyahu backed down and said that he did not think this was a good idea anymore.

According to the officials, Biden told Netanyahu that he must confront extremists in his government coalition on this issue, just as he is dealing with political pressure from Congress over the war in Gaza.

Smotrich had issued a "final ultimatum" to Netanyahu, threatening to resign from the government if the clearance funds were transferred to the Palestinian Authority.

This comes at a time when Israeli Ministry of Defense officials recommended transferring the funds deducted by Israel to the Palestinian Authority, and allowing workers from the West Bank to enter to work in Israel, in response to American requests to prevent the situation in the West Bank from exploding.