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Israel Considers All-out Attacks Against PNA: Sharon
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said on Monday that the security cabinet deliberated and voted on the possibility of an all-out attack against the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) a few days ago.
"There was a vote on the matter, and the decision that was taken was to continue with the policy of active defensive (measures)," Sharon told a meeting of his right-wing Likud party.
The prime minister compared PNA Chairman Yasser Arafat to Osama bin Laden, suspected by the U.S. of orchestrating terror attacks against U.S. targets, Israel Radio reported.
Also on Monday, outgoing U.S. ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk said that up until now, the situation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip has not been quiet enough to warrant beginning the countdown towards the cooling-off period specified in the Tenet ceasefire document.
Indyk said that a week, not merely a day, of complete quiet must precede the cooling-off period.
"If Arafat and the Palestinian security services would make a 100-percent effort," Indyk was quoted by Israel Radio as saying, " there would be a 100-percent success."
Mediated by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell last week, Israel and the Palestinians agreed to a seven-day period of " complete quiet" before a six-week cooling-off period as stipulated in the U.S.-brokered ceasefire plan.
Confidence-building measures are to begin after the six-week cooling-off period. The United States has granted Sharon the right to decide when confidence-building measures can be taken.
Arafat, for his part, declared on Saturday that the period of quiet started from last Wednesday.
Israel to Reconsider Policy of Restraint: Israeli DMIsraeli Defense Minister Binjamin Ben Eliezer said on Monday that Israel will reconsider its policy of restraint in light of continued "terror."
Ben Eliezer told reporters that since the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat declared the countdown towards the beginning of the implementation of the cease-fire document, brokered by U.S. Central Intelligent Agency Director George Tenet, attacks have increased in intensity.
Israel Radio reported that an Israeli citizen was shot and killed Monday afternoon in an Israeli Arab town of Baka al-Gharbiya within the 1967 Green line.
The man was walking in the market in the village, east of the Israeli northern city of Hadera, when he was shot at close range.
The radio said that it was not clear where the gunmen came from and the Israeli police are investigating the incident.
Earlier in the morning, two powerful bombs exploded consecutively in vehicles in separate areas of the the Tel Aviv suburb of Yehud. There were no injuries but several people received treatment for shock.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a radical faction of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), claimed responsibility, saying the blasts came in revenge for the overnight helicopter attack that killed three Palestinians who were members of the militant Islamic Jihad (or Holy War) group.
They were driving in the northern West Bank, near the town of Jenin, in a car packed with explosives when they were attacked. Israeli officials accused the three of preparing for bomb attacks against Israeli targets.
In the wake of the ongoing violence, there has been doubt whether the Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire could hold on.
Also on Monday, Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Shaul Mofaz cut short his visit to the United States and returned to Israel. The Israeli army gave no reason for his early return.
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