All of the interested parties in the Middle East seem to be
positioning themselves for events following a breakdown in
the cease-fire between Israel and the Palestinian Authority
(PA).
Israeli politicians and spokesmen from all Israeli parties
insisted that there had never been a Palestinian cease-
fire. For example, asked whether the cease-fire was still in
effect, deputy defense minister Dalia Rabin-Pelossof, a
member of the Labor party known for dovish views, told
Israel Radio: "The situation today can be described in every
possible way, but not as a cease-fire."
Residents of the territories were calling for more decisive
steps against terror, and there was strong pressure from the
Right to attack more extensively.
Palestinian terror groups began saying in public that the
cease-fire is over after Israel killed three Palestinian
terrorists in a rocket attack. Arafat protested the killings
as "a crime."
UN Middle East envoy Terje Roed-Larsen appealed for
restraint from both sides, but said the nearly three-week-
old cease-fire seems unlikely to hold.
The United States condemned the Israeli "targeted killings"
but said that the Palestinians had not done "enough" to stop
the terror. We think the Palestinians have not done enough
to fight terror and to end the violence," Richard A.
Boucher, the State Department spokesman, said in Washington.
"We also want to make clear that we remain opposed to
Israel's policy of targeted killings." Boucher also added,
"In light of the violence, the first day of the projected
seven days of calm had not yet arrived."
In response to Boucher's statement, Shaul Mofaz, IDF Chief
of Staff who was in the U.S. for a series of speeches and
meetings, said, "Everyone who brings up the issue of the
right of self-defense has to ask what they would do if their
country was exposed to 5,600 acts of terrorism. Our actions
are very carefully considered."
Mofaz cut short his visit to the U.S. by several days
because of the situation in Israel, a further indication
that Israel is planning a shift in policy.
Though each said something different due to the nature of
the specific interest he or she represented, the common
underlying feeling seems to be that the cease-fire is not
working and the area is waiting for the next major stage to
being, whatever that may be.
Israeli prime minister Sharon noted on Monday that Israel
had considered an all-out attack on the Palestinian
Authority. He did not make clear what the objective of such
an attack would be. Presumably if the cease-fire is declared
officially halted that plan may be put into operation.
The U.S. seems to be striving for some balance to maintain
the confidence of both sides. Thus it finds something on
both sides to criticize at each opportunity. Though in many
ways it has understood Israeli demands by not meeting with
Arafat and by insisting on serious efforts to halt terrorism
on the part of the PA, it has also not approved a special
aid package of $800 million originally promised to Israel by
President Clinton when Israel withdrew from Lebanon more
than a year ago.
Pressured by the US, Israeli and Palestinian security
officials met Monday night in Tel Aviv in the presence of a
CIA official to discuss ways of implementing the cease-fire
and bringing an end to the violence.
Nonetheless, hours earlier, an Israeli was murdered as he
shopped in the marketplace situated on the Green Line
between two Israeli and Palestinian-controlled Arab towns.
Aharon Abidian, 41, a mashgiach kashrut, was shot
repeatedly at point-blank range, 50 meters from an army
roadblock.
The assailant fled eastward, and the Fatah Tanzim later
claimed responsibility for Abidian's murder. Police called
on Israelis to refrain from entering Palestinian-controlled
areas.
"There is no real desire by the Palestinians to halt the
attacks. This reality requires a reassessment by the State
of Israel," Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer told the
Russian Foreign Ministry's visiting special emissary to the
Middle East, Andre Vdobin.
Ben-Eliezer noted that since Palestinian Authority Chairman
Yasser Arafat declared the beginning of the seven-day cease-
fire, attacks have increased in intensity. "We don't have
any other choice but to do a reassessment," Ben-Eliezer
said.
Elsewhere in the West Bank and Gaza there was an increase in
Palestinian shooting attacks on Israeli civilian and
military targets.
Bombs planted in the cars of two Yehud residents exploded in
the town center Monday causing no serious casualties or
damage, but raising concern over what seems to be a new
terrorist tactic.
The cars had been parked in residential areas -- one of them
outside a kindergarten. Nine people had to be treated for
shock after the blasts, which set fire to the vehicles and
damaged other cars and the windows of nearby homes.
Eschewing their standard practice of rigging up stolen
Israeli cars, the terrorists apparently chose unremarkable
vehicles, broke into them, and planted the bombs.
News agencies reported that the Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine had issued a statement claiming
responsibility for the attacks, saying they were in
retaliation for the killing of five Palestinians by the IDF
in the course of Sunday.
Minister of Science, Culture and Sports Matan Vilnai and
member of the security cabinet, dismissed US criticism of
the assumed Israeli policy of assassinations against
Palestinian terrorists, saying, "I'm not sure the US really
understands the rules of this game."
"It's difficult [for the US] to comprehend the fine points
when you're not in the middle of the events, . . . I'd like
to see how the US would respond to a car rolling through the
streets of Manhattan loaded with explosives. I know what
they would do. I am familiar with the Americans," Vilnai
said.
Israeli security sources said that Mohammed Bisharat, the
main target of the helicopter attack and an Islamic Jihad
activist, had planned to send a squad of seven suicide
bombers to carry out attacks inside the Green Line. The
sources added that they had asked the Palestinian Authority
to arrest Bisharat, but they refused, and therefore the
attack was necessary in order to prevent mass killings,
which were expected to be carried out imminently.
Bisharat is believed to be responsible for sending two
suicide bombers to Hadera on May 25, as well as for a number
of bombs in Netanya, Samaria and the Jordan Valley.
