ISRAEL: The Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat yesterday called on all Palestinian factions to "give a chance to political and peace efforts" by resuming their ceasefire.
The Israeli government derided the plea as disingenuous, arguing that Mr Arafat was himself encouraging the very attacks on Israel he purported to want to halt.
Mr Arafat issued his statement days after the US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, tacitly acknowledging his continuing centrality in Palestinian politics, had urged the PA president to provide backing for his beleaguered Prime Minister, Mr Mahmoud Abbas, who negotiated the original ceasefire at the end of June.
However, Mr Arafat flatly rejected US pressure for him to relinquish to Mr Abbas the direct control of several of the numerous Palestinian security apparatuses.
The White House, which refuses to deal directly with Mr Arafat, had directly criticised him on Tuesday for preventing Mr Abbas from "consolidating" the security networks, and for appointing his own national security adviser, Mr Jibril Rajoub, in apparent competition to Mr Abbas's security chiefs.
But Mr Arafat dismissed the criticism, telling Reuters: "I will not allow anyone to intervene in our internal affairs."
Mr Abbas is now trying to revive the ceasefire, which was cancelled last week by Hamas and Islamic Jihad after Israel's killing of the senior Hamas leader Ismail Abu Shanab in a missile strike in Gaza.
The Israeli government said it killed Abu Shanab, and would pursue all members of the Hamas "hard core," in the wake of a Hamas suicide bombing in Jerusalem last Tuesday, in which 21 people were killed. Unless or until Mr Abbas launched a concerted effort to dismantle terrorist groups, Israeli officials said, the Israeli army would do the job.
The Israeli Defence Minister, Mr Shaul Mofaz, reiterated yesterday that Israel did not feel Mr Abbas had "even begun" to take action against the extremists.