ACROSS its northern border in Lebanon, Israel yesterday sent its jets to stage raids on the military bases of a radical Palestinian group.
Across its southern border, in the Gaza Strip, meanwhile, Mr Yasser Arafat last night convened the Palestinian National Council for a protracted meeting that is set to raise Israeli Palestinian ties to a new high.
The ongoing fighting in Lebanon expanded yesterday to include Israeli raids on bases of Ahmed Jibril's Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command inevitably overshadowed the start of deliberations at the PNC, the longtime Palestinian parliament in exile. And with the deaths of some 100 Lebanese civilians in last Thursday's Israeli shelling of Qana still fresh in the memory of the hundreds of delegates, it was hardly the most opportune timing for a conference dedicated to amending the anti Israeli clauses of the PLO's 1960s guiding covenant.
Indeed, many of the delegates at the hastily prepared Gaza City conference hall insisted that they were bent on casting votes against any changes to the charter.
But officials close to Mr Arafat said that they expected the necessary two thirds majority of the 600 or so PNC members to vote through the appropriate amendments when the conference completes its more bureaucratic business, such as electing a new PLO executive committee, and gets down to debating the charter towards the end of the week.
Mr Arafat was given a rapturous welcome by delegates last night, and delivered an opening address urging them to approve the amendments in light of the new era of Israeli Palestinian relations based on co existence".
The Israeli PLO peace accords give Mr Arafat until May 7th to amend clauses of the charter which call for an "armed struggle" to liberate Palestine and reject any negotiated compromise.
And the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Shimon Peres, well aware of how symbolically important the issue of the charter has become to the Israeli electorate, has made further peace moves conditional on the changes being voted through Israel has given permission for even some of the most notorious Palestinian figures to come to Gaza City for the meeting. And one of them, Mr Mohammed Abbas, organiser of the 1985 hijacking of the cruise ship Achille Lauro, underlined yesterday the potential of the peace accords for building improved relations between Israelis and Palestinians.
At an extraordinary press conference in Gaza. Mr Abbas said the hijacking had been a mistake, and apologised for the killing of Mr Leon Klinghoffer, a wheelchair bound American born passenger who was thrown overboard to his death by the hijackers. Now, he said, "we choose the road of peace".
Security for the PNC meetings was intense, not least because of the exposure on Sunday of an alleged conspiracy to assassinate Mr Arafat. Seven Hamas militants are being held in Palestinian custody after a number of those involved in the alleged plot turned themselves in.
Mr Arafat, it is said by his security chiefs, was to have been killed during a visit to a Gaza City cemetery this Saturday. The exposure of the plotters is also said to have prevented a number of Hamas suicide attacks on Israeli targets.
Meanwhile in Jerusalem yesterday, Mr Peres was heckled by Arab Knesset members who have traditionally supported his coalition during a debate on the bombardment of Lebanon. Three of the legislators were ejected from the chamber after directing such epithets as "child murderer" at the Prime Minister.
Some Arab leaders are threatening to call on their supporters to boycott Mr Peres in next month's elections, but since this would probably hand victory to Mr Benjamin Netanyahu of the Likud, it is unlikely that they will follow through.