ISRAEL: On the eve of the American envoy, Mr Anthony Zinni's new peace mission, Israel's leaders were yesterday arguing bitterly among themselves about how, when and even whether to resume substantive negotiations with Mr Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority.
Mr Zinni is today to meet Israeli officials and tomorrow Palestinian leaders, in an effort to formalise a truce in the 15-month intifada conflict and pave the way for a return to the peace table.
But with the cracks showing ever more clearly inside Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's so-called "unity government", the envoy is certain to get conflicting signals from different ministers.
After 44 Israelis were killed in Palestinian attacks in the first half of December, Mr Sharon oversaw cabinet decisions that branded the Palestinian Authority (PA) as "an entity that supports terrorism", designated Mr Arafat himself as "irrelevant," and kept the Palestinian leader under effective house arrest in Ramallah - even barring him from Bethlehem at Christmas.
Yesterday Mr Sharon said for the first time in public that Mr Arafat would remain confined to his Ramallah headquarters until the killers of Israeli Tourism Minister Mr Rehavam Zeevi are arrested.
And Mr Sharon is still in no mood to re-engage with Mr Arafat, asserting that the PA's "crackdown" on Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the period since December 16th, during which only one more Israeli has been killed, is a charade, and that the extremists have merely agreed to temporarily suspend attacks in order to ease the international pressure on the Palestinian leadership.
Twenty Palestinians have died in the same period, including eight men killed when attempting attacks on Israeli targets, and seven shot in Gaza, in clashes between supporters of the Islamic groups and Mr Arafat's forces.
Mr Sharon is also still authorising military incursions into Palestinian territory. And despite some official statements to the contrary, next to nothing had been done as of last night to lift restrictions on Palestinian movement around the West Bank - with cities blockaded, as they have been for the past two months, and roadblocks and barriers on every significant thoroughfare.
In stark contrast, the Foreign Minister, Mr Shimon Peres, wants to ignore Mr Sharon's demand for "seven days of calm", and begin implementing the ceasefire plan of the CIA chief, Mr George Tenet, and then the Mitchell Commission proposals for a gradual return to serious peace talks.
Palestinian officials support this approach.
More surprising than the Sharon-Peres infighting, however, is the ongoing spat between Mr Sharon and Israel's ceremonial President, Mr Moshe Katsav, who is fuming over the prime minister's refusal to let him address the Palestinian parliament in Ramallah.