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Israeli Deputy Premier Declares Peacemaking Dead
Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat was heading for war with Israel and the Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking was dead, said an Israeli minister Thursday.
"Arafat decided at some stage to choose the path of violence, the path of confrontation...we are on a collision course. This is war," Minister of Communications Binyamin Ben Eliezer told the Israel Radio.
Ben Eliezer's comments contradicted some encouraging signs in the region, including an agreement announced by the United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan for Israel and Palestinians to hold high-level security meetings chaired by the United States.
Annan, who is here to mediate the ending of the two-week-old clashes between Israelis and Palestinians, said early Thursday morning that Israeli and Palestinian security officials would meet Thursday with American representatives to discuss the unrest in the territories.
He said CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) Director George Tenet would attend the meeting, adding that this was an important step toward ending the violence and hoping that it would eventually lead to the resumption of peace talks.
Ben Eliezer said Israel should prepare for a rise in terrorist attacks by Palestinians opposed to peace.
Meanwhile, Meri Sheetrit, lawmaker from the opposition Likud party, appealed on Thursday to Prime Minister Ehud Barak for making hardline Likud leader Ariel Sharon the defense minister in an emergency unity government.
Pessimistic comments could also be part of a propaganda war in which each side accuses the other of not seeking peace.
Talks of Sharon joining the government could be designed to stir the Palestinians into peace talks, local political observers said.
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