AN OFF DUTY Israeli policeman, shopping for toys with his wife and baby in a West Bank town yesterday, was shot dead by a gunman firing from a car. His wife was hit in the chest and was hospitalised in moderate condition last night. His son was unhurt. A family friend, who lives on the same West Bank settlement (Ariel) as the dead man, told reporters at the hospital she feared that "the Intifada is returning" and that she wanted to leave the settlement "I don't want to be the next in line."
The policeman was the third Israeli to be killed by Palestinian gunmen since Israeli elections late last month saw the hardliner Mr Benjamin Netanyahu voted into office. Mr Netanyahu is expected to present his government to the Knesset for its approval today the spate of recent shootings underlines the difficulties ahead of him.
Israeli military sources note pointedly that Mr Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority failed to condemn the killing of two Israelis in a drive by shooting last week, and failed to issue an immediate condemnation of yesterday's attack as well. Sources close to Mr Arafat retort that Mr Netanyahu has failed to so much as telephone the Palestinian leader since winning the elections more than two weeks ago.
One source noted that Palestinian and Israeli security officials have been co operating with each other, in the fight against such shootings and other attacks on Israelis, on an hour by hour basis". That cooperation, he said, stemmed from the strong relationship between Mr Arafat and the defeated Israeli premier Mr Shimon Peres. If Mr Netanyahu was not interested in establishing a similar relationship, warned the source, then that lack of co-operation would filter all the way down the hierarchy.
Mr Arafat held the latest in a series of post election crisis meetings with Palestinian colleagues in Gaza over the weekend, setting up a new committee to examine and deal with the implications of Mr Netanyahu's victory. Little examination is required. The fact is that the Israeli electorate, terrified of more Palestinian suicide bombings and shootings, narrowly elected an unproven leader from a strong right wing family, who has never hidden his support for West Bank Jewish settlement or his antipathy for Mr Arafat.