Israeli and Palestinian security chiefs were meeting last night to discuss arrangements for Israeli military withdrawals from four more West Bank cities. Troops completed their pullout from Bethlehem and Beit Jala overnight. Israeli officials say they want to monitor what happens in Bethlehem and Beit Jala, and especially whether there is any further shooting from there on the nearby Jewish neighbourhood of Gilo, as a "test case" before approving further pullouts - a stance which suggests that the rest of the troop withdrawals, even if they begin soon, may not be completed for several days, at the very least.
Bolstering this impression is the fact that Israel has increased its troop deployment in the Jenin area, to the north of the West Bank - the home town of two gunmen who shot dead four Israeli women in central Hadera on Sunday - and that the government has authorised the army to respond to that attack.
In a further possible indication of such a delay, reports began surfacing here yesterday that Israel's Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, may postpone a visit to the US that had been scheduled for early November. Mr Sharon has been publicly and repeatedly criticised by President George Bush and several US administration officials for having sent in the troops to Palestinian territory, and for not withdrawing them immediately.
Although Mr Sharon's office did not confirm that the trip has been postponed, it is clear that the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, is to visit the region on Thursday, and meet both Mr Sharon and the Palestinian Authority President, Mr Yasser Arafat.
The pullback from Bethlehem was completed on the day that Israel marked the sixth anniversary (according to the Hebrew calendar) of the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. Mr Rabin was the prime minister who signed the accord with Mr Arafat that saw the West Bank cities handed over to the Palestinian Authority in the first place.
While Mr. Arafat sent flowers to the grave, and spoke of the loss of "a great person, a great leader", Mr Rabin's Israeli colleagues were arguing, albeit in dignified speeches given at the cemetery and in a Knesset ceremony, over his legacy.
Mr Sharon chose to highlight what he said was Mr Rabin's determination never to compromise on Israeli sovereignty throughout Jerusalem. He described a telephone conversation that he had with Leah Rabin, Mr Rabin's widow, shortly before she died: "Leah told me with the last of her strength: 'It is true that Yitzhak would never concede Jerusalem,' and I replied, 'I am sure that on Jerusalem he would never have conceded.' "
However, doveish politicians such as Labour's Knesset Speaker Mr Avraham Burg and left-wing Meretz leader Mr Yossi Sarid highlighted Mr Rabin's readiness to relinquish even territory of tremendous Jewish historical significance in the quest for peace.
As the man who embraced the Oslo peace accords with Mr Arafat, Mr Rabin's standing rises and falls with that of the Palestinian leader, who is currently probably as widely reviled among Israelis as Mr Sharon is among Palestinians. An opinion poll conducted for Army Radio underlined the differing perceptions: 52 per cent of Israelis said they missed Mr Rabin, and 48 percent that they did not; among Israeli Arabs, 72 per cent said they missed him.
The Israeli army announced last night that three soldiers, who had been listed as missing since being captured by Hizbullah gunmen at the Lebanon border a year ago, were almost certainly dead. The men were grabbed in the Shaba Farms area, where Lebanon claims sovereignty.
