Israel barred Yasser Arafat from leaving the West Bank to attend a meeting of Arab leaders in Qatar today, keeping the Palestinian Authority President in Ramallah as the Bush Administration made plain its continuing dissatisfaction with the scope of his fight against Islamic extremists. Anthony Zinni, the Administration's envoy, is threatening to abort his peacemaking mission tomorrow if both sides do not make a new effort to reach a ceasefire.
The Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon warned yesterday that Israel might "increase our activity" against Palestinian targets, after a Palestinian man blew himself up in a failed suicide bombing in northern Israel, and an Israeli motorist was shot in the throat by a Palestinian gunman in the occupied West Bank.
Israeli troops killed four Palestinians during a raid on the West Bank village of Anabta, in Palestinian Authority territory near Tulkarm: in cold blood, said Palestinian witnesses; in the course of a fire fight, according to the Israelis, who arrested several Hamas operatives and said they seized items intended for use in suicide bombings. A fifth Palestinian, a taxi driver, was shot dead by troops at a roadblock near Jenin. Palestinian officials said he was driving away from an Israeli tank; the Israeli army said it was investigating the incident.
Mr. Sharon last night paralleled Palestinian attacks on Israeli civilians with the September 11th atrocities in the US, and declared that both Israel and the US would prevail in "the war of good against evil, the war of the just against the unjust". New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, visiting Israel along with his successor Michael Bloomberg and New York Governor George Pataki, endorsed the parallel, declaring that "Freedom and democracy is under attack here, and that is exactly what was put under attack in America on September 11."
Long a staunch supporter of Israel and good friend of Jerusalem's hawkish Likud Mayor Ehud Olmert, Mr Giuliani was reiterating a familiar position. Much more significant is that the Bush Administration has adopted a similar tone in recent days, referring to Israel's plight with far more emphasis than the suffering of the Palestinians, and publicly backing Israel's military attacks on PA targets as "self-defence". Stating that the violence by Hamas and other extremists was "destroying his (Arafat's ) authority and credibility", Secretary of State Colin Powell suggested yesterday that "the Palestinian people ought to be asking their leaders, 'Where does this take us?'".
Mr. Arafat continues to claim that he has arrested 17 of 33 "most wanted" extremists on a list of bombing orchestrators handed to him by Mr Zinni, and that a total of 180 militants have been detained this month.
Israel asserts that only 10 of the "hard core" are in jail, and that they will be quietly freed when world attention is elsewhere.
Reuters adds: Islamic militant groups said after issuing a statement last night offering a conditional truce to Israel that talks on the issue among Palestinians were not yet complete.
After the initial statement, a senior Israeli security official had dismissed the truce offer and said Israel had no choice but to continue to "act in self-defence".