FURIOUSLY blaming each other for the descent towards further conflict, Israeli and Palestinian officials at the weekend effectively warned their peoples to prepare for another round of violence and bloodshed.
The Palestinian President, Mr Yasser Arafat, accused the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, of having planted "a ticking bomb" by approving a series of financial benefits to encourage more Jews to move into West Bank settlements.
His cabinet called the Israeli move "a declaration of war" and issued a highly-charged statement urging all Palestinians to "stand strongly to face the challenge of Netanyahu's policies and to defend the land." The Israeli decision was also criticised by the Clinton Administration, and by, EU leaders in Dublin who termed the settlements illegal.
For his part, Mr Netanyahu, who authorised "national priority status" for the settlements in response to last week's killing by Palestinian militants of a settler woman and her son, accused Mr Arafat of deliberately seeking violent confrontation. He claimed that top Palestinian officials had been planning a new round of conflict "for weeks." That claim was reinforced at the weekend by Israeli security chiefs, who said Mr Arafat had ordered his aides to prepare for more of the kind of gun-battles that erupted in late-September.
This latest war of words plunges Israeli-Palestinian relations to a new low, with officials on both sides now saying privately that a return to conflict seems increasingly unavoidable. What is remarkable about the current tension, however, is the sense that the Israeli security establishment - and primarily the heads of the army and the Shin Bet intelligence service - holds Mr Netanyahu personally to blame for much of the deterioration.
Leaks from the last few days' top-level Israeli consultations indicate that Mr Netanyahu had intended to authorise the construction of a new West Bank settlement in response to last week's killings, and was ready to brazen out the deluge of international criticism. Only when the head of the Shin Bet, Mr Ami Ayalon, told the prime minister such a move would inevitably trigger new fighting, and indicated that neither his agency nor the army could be party to such a decision, did Mr Netanyahu back down.
The security chiefs were also reportedly deeply unhappy with the decision to grant priority status to the settlements, since they said it could only hasten the "explosion" with the Palestinians.
That criticism was echoed by Israel's leading daily columnist, Nahum Barnea, who wrote in the Yediot Ahronot tabloid yesterday that Mr Netanyahu had managed to infuriate the Palestinians, the US and Western Europe, without even appeasing the settlers.
The prime minister was unique, wrote Mr Barnea, in managing "to disappoint everybody."