From the Israeli paper Ha'aretz...

The crumbling of national unity

The bloody terror attacks in Israel in recent days could be defined as a statement of revolt by the Islamic organizations against Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat. This weekend, as Arafat and his people were explaining to Anthony Zinni how they were thinking of bringing about a cease-fire, along came the actions of the fanatics of Islamic Jihad, Hamas and Hezbollah, as if to declare that they were thumbing their noses at everything.

To a large extent, the situation today in Palestinian politics resembles the loose coalition among the various organizations that existed during the years the Palestine Liberation Organization was active in Beirut. The "Fakahani days" (named after the neighborhood in Beirut in which Fatah headquarters were located) is the term used by Palestinians to describe those chaotic days in Lebanon during which every organization did pretty much what it felt like doing.

Even before the intifada, when the Palestinian regime was relatively stable, Arafat based his regime on the existence of dozens of paramilitary organizations and militia-like groups that competed among themselves. Now that Israel has butchered the territories into closed-off enclaves, the chaos in the Palestinian political and social spheres is many times greater.
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From the Independent...

Israel stunned by terror blitz
31 dead, 200 injured in suicide attacks;
Arafat warned: 'This is a moment of truth';
Palestine declares a state of emergency

The Palestinian Authority rounded up dozens of Islamic militants today as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon flew back from the US for an emergency cabinet meeting.

This political upheaval came after a weekend of terrorist attacks inside Israel that left 31 dead and 200 wounded and renewed fears that the war in the Middle East was set to worsen dramatically.
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The US President, George Bush, led the condemnation of the attacks, which were claimed by the militant Islamist organisation Hamas in retaliation for Israel's assassination of Mahmoud Abu Hanoud, the group's military leader in the West Bank, in a missile strike 10 days ago.

Mr Bush said: "This is a moment where the advocates for peace in the Middle East must rise up and fight terror. Chairman Arafat must do everything in his power to find those who murdered innocent Israelis and bring them to justice."
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Arafat faces angry demands for a crackdown on Islamic extremists

Calls rang angrily around the world yesterday for Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader, to crack down on militants after four grotesque bombing attacks in Israel within 12 hours. As 25 Israelis were buried, one question was being asked everywhere: why has he not acted already?

The Israeli government has always blamed the violence on Mr Arafat, and it did so again yesterday. Government spokesmen fell over one another in the rush to accuse him of doing nothing to stop terror attacks.

But this fails to take into account the depth of militancy within Palestinian society, which has been hardened by months of economic blockade and daily killings at the hands of the Israeli army.

It ignores the increasingly blurred lines between Mr Arafat's security forces and the Islamic radicals whom they are supposed to be jailing. It overlooks the fractured nature of the territory under the control of the Palestinian Authority, and the level of anger, not only over Israel's conduct, but also over Mr Arafat's administration.
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A Palestinian analyst, Ghassan Khatib, said: "Arafat's ability to control the militants is dependent to some extent on the other side. Two weeks ago came the Israeli escalation.The extremists on both sides now have the upper hand."
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Arafat risks civil war by ordering dozens of arrests

Yasser Arafat pushed ahead with a sweeping crack-down against Palestinian militants as he tried to fend off the most serious challenge to his rule since the signing of the Oslo accords eight years ago.
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Many of Mr Arafat's security forces are as loyal to the militants as they are to his authority, and they have been reluctant to take tough measures against radical activists. Israel's policy of responding to Palestinian attacks by bombing their security headquarters – on show again last night as F-16s jets dropped 2,000lb bombs on Jenin and helicopter gunships fired into the Gaza Strip – has helped harden their views. Some have even helped in guerrilla attacks. And Palestinian grassroots support for Islamic militants, especially Hamas, has rocketed during the intifada, not least because they provided welfare support at a time of increasingly poverty, and the Palestinian Authority has proved inadequate and venal.

There is a widespread belief in the Arab world, shared by some western analysts, that elements in Israel's security establishment have tried to foment civil strife inside the occupied territories to pressure Mr Arafat, or even topple him.

Israel's armed forces are blamed by many for provoking Hamas into renewing murderous attacks against civilians by assassinating one of their senior military leaders, Mahmoud Abu Hanoud, last month when the group had suspended suicide bombings in Israel.
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Yesterday, its spokesmen were eager to point out that Mr Arafat now faces a choice between tackling the "terrorists" – breaking up Hamas and Islamic Jihad – or facing political annihilation. This fails to take into account the depth of anti-Israeli sentiment in the occupied territories, or Mr Arafat's status as the figurehead of Palestinian nationalism. He succeeded in bottling up Hamas with a similar wave of arrests in 1996; but that was before the intifada, which has cost 800 Palestinian lives, and a new generation of radicalised activists. There is no guarantee that jailing militants en masse would stop the attacks on Israelis.
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Israel launches missile attack on Arafat base
Sharon 'declares war on terror'

Israeli helicopter gunships have fired at least nine missiles at targets in Gaza City today, in retaliation for weekend suicide bombings, which killed 26 people.

The missiles landed near Yasser Arafat's headquarters in the city. A helicopter belonging to the PLO leader was destroyed.

The attacks preceded an uncompromising statement by Ariel Sharon, the Israeli Prime Minister, who bluntly stated tonight that yesterday's terrorrist attacks in Jerusalem were the responsibility of Mr Arafat.

In what amounted to a declaration of war, he insisted that Israel would use "full force, full determination, all the means used to this day and new means available to us."

"Arafat is responsible for everything that is going on here...anybody who stands up to kill us is in danger himself," Mr Sharon said in a televised address to the nation.
Israel launches missile attack on Arafat base