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Sharon Convenes Cabinet Meeting to Discuss Weekend Attacks
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon convened a meeting of the security cabinet on Sunday to discuss Friday's suicide bombing attack in Netanya and Israel's military responses which have drawn international criticism.
The meeting came after Minister of Transport Ephraim Sneh and other ministers criticised Sharon for not involving other ministers of the security cabinet in making decisions regarding army operations and the nation's security.
The Israeli air force launched air raids on Palestinian security installations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on Friday and Saturday by F-16 fighter jets and helicopter gunships, killing 12 Palestinians and wounding scores of others.
The bombardment was in retaliation for Friday's suicide bombing attack in the northern coastal city of Netanya, in which five Israelis were killed and 100 others wounded when a bomber blew himself up at the entrance of a shopping mall.
Reports of local media quoted senior officials in Sharon's office as saying that the use of the fighter jets, the first since the 1967 Mideast War, was intended to send the Palestinians a message that if bombing attacks continue, Israel will stage more severe reprisals.
The use of jets was endorsed during a meeting of the troika of Sharon, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Defense Minister Binjamin Ben Eliezer.
Sneh blasted the fact that the decision to use warplanes was not taken by the security cabinet, which is composed of leading ministers.
"This system of running things is not the correct one," he said, insisting that the ministers be part of the decision-making process regarding military action in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The prime minister's office said that the security cabinet could not been convened on Friday because of the proximity to the Jewish holy day of Sabbath, which starts from sunset on Friday and ends at sunset on Saturday.
After Israel's latest air strikes, Arab foreign ministers met in Cairo on Saturday and called on Arab countries to sever all political contacts with Israel until it ends assaults on the Palestinians.
Peres, who is leaving on Sunday for Russia on a two-day visit, said that he regretted the conclusions of his Arab counterparts.
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