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Israel Believes in Arafat's Efforts to Stop Clashes: Official
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak's security advisor said on Friday that the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) is trying to stop outbreak of violent clashes between Palestinians and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), despite gunbattles Thursday night.
Danny Yatom said that "Despite the shooting and the clashes, I know that there are attempts, and there are intentions from the Palestinians to bring calm to the territories."
In an interview with Israel Radio, Yatom noted that these efforts have not yet yielded many concrete results. However, he said: "I am sure that in the coming hours, in the coming days we will see more effective attempts and we will see better results," he added.
Yatom made the remarks after the Israeli security cabinet agreed to Prime Minister Ehud Barak's suggestion to wait and see how the " Gaza understandings" reached between Israeli Minister of Regional Cooperation Shimon Peres and PNA Chairman Arafat Wednesday night for a cease-fire are expressed, and not retaliate with an immediate Israeli reaction.
The cabinet meeting was convened Thursday night in Barak's Office after a car bomb attack in Jerusalem, which killed two Israelis and injured at least nine others, to debate the "Gaza understandings."
Though the cabinet agreed to give the understandings a chance, the Internet edition of Israel's leading daily Ha'aretz Friday quoted a source as saying that they are not being upheld in the field, citing 18 shooting incidents that occurred Thursday, a number similar to recent days before the Peres-Arafat agreement.
The simultaneous radio announcements of the cease-fire to be delivered by Barak and Arafat were cancelled Thursday.
Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh earlier said that the attempt to realize the understandings has not yet occurred, and refused to define the period that the Israeli government was willing to wait to see them achieved.
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