Middle East: Mr Yasser Arafat and his Palestinian Authority were under intense pressure yesterday after the deaths of three Americans in an attack in Gaza sparked calls from American and European leaders not only for the swift capture of the perpetrators, but for an unequivocal Palestinian effort to snuff out terror and for a fundamental revamping of Palestinian security forces.
President George Bush placed the blame for the attack, on an official US convoy travelling in the Strip, on the Palestinian leadership, saying "it should have acted long ago to fight terror in all its forms," and that its "failure to create effective Palestinian security forces dedicated to fighting terror continues to cost lives." "The failure to undertake these reforms and dismantle the terrorist organisations constitutes the greatest obstacle to achieving the Palestinian people's dream of statehood," Mr Bush said in a statement.
UN and EU leaders were equally tough, demanding that Mr Arafat act immediately to bring the bombers to justice. EU foreign policy chief Mr Javier Solana telephoned the Palestinian leader and told him that "condemnations and excuses will not do," Mr Solana's spokeswoman, Ms Cristina Gallach said. "The Palestinian Authority has to identify, apprehend and punish those responsible for the crime today," she quoted Mr Solana as saying.
UN Middle East envoy Mr Terje Roed-Larsen warned that the attack was an "ominous widening of the conflict." The bombing, he added, "underscores the vital need for the Palestinian Authority to revamp and strengthen its security forces so such terror attacks do not occur." Mr Bush was more blunt: "There must be an empowered prime minister who controls all Palestinian forces - reforms that continue to be blocked by Yasser Arafat." Despite international pressure, Mr Arafat has stubbornly refused to relinquish his authority over a substantial portion of the Palestinian security forces so they can be united under a single command. The US believes this is vital if the Palestinian Authority is to move against armed groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
It remains to be seen whether the attack will help new Palestinian Prime Minister Mr Ahmed Korei in his bid to wrest security control from Mr Arafat, who yesterday called the attack an "ugly crime" and ordered a probe.
The bombing is a nightmare scenario for Mr Arafat and his Palestinian Authority, whose credit-rating with the US is already at an all-time low: it took place in an area that is under full Palestinian control and so they cannot shift the blame to Israel.
It is unclear how the Palestinian public will digest the attack. Most Palestinians view the US as unabashedly biased toward Israel. Recent American support of Israel's air-strike in Syria, of a raid into southern Gaza in which eight Palestinians were killed, and America's exercising of its veto Tuesday to block a Security Council resolution against the West Bank fence Israel is building, have all strengthened that perception.
Palestinian leaders, though, immediately grasped the destructive potential of the attack. Minister Mr Saeb Erekat called it a "devastating act" that would undermine Palestinian efforts to bring international observers to the region.
Publicly, Israeli officials also heaped blame on the Palestinian leadership. Foreign Minister Mr Silvan Shalom told US Ambassador to Israel Mr Dan Kurtzer that "Palestinian terror organisations continue to strike indiscriminately". Quietly, Israeli government officials were hoping the attack would strengthen their claim that Israel and the US were confronting a common terror threat. That a connection can, and must, be drawn between the September 11th attacks in the US, the ongoing attacks on American forces in Iraq, and the suicide bombings in Israeli cities.
Some officials were also hoping the attack might finally erode American opposition to the expulsion of Mr Arafat from the territories. But Israel might find that the Gaza bombing does not fundamentally alter US policy. Since the collapse of the government of former Palestinian prime minister Mr Mahmoud Abbas in early September, the Bush administration has increasingly withdrawn from the conflict.
Conor O'Clery adds: The United States has vetoed a resolution at the UN Security Council condeming Israel's security wall that cuts into parts of the West Bank. Ten of the 15 members of the council voted for the resolution, including France, Russia and China. Bulgaria, Cameroon. Germany and Britain abstained. The vote came late on Tuesday after a bitter debate in which Israel's wall was described as racist and colonialist, and a land-grab that would create "open-air prisons" on Palestinian territories.