Israeli representatives yesterday walked out of international mediation talks on the conflict in Lebanon almost as soon as they began, in protest at a further Hizullah attack which killed an Israeli soldier and wounded another yesterday morning.
The pledge to withdraw from Lebanon, which probably won last year's election for Mr Ehud Barak, is now turning into a serious liability. Vote for me, promised prime ministerial candidate Barak last spring, and I will bring the boys home from Lebanon by July 2000. After the election, they rejoiced as months went by with little violence on the Israel-Lebanon border, peace talks were resumed with Syria, and prospects grew of an orderly evacuation of the Israeli-held "security zone" in southern Lebanon.
In television interviews last night, Mr Barak reiterated his pledge. He was determined "to put an end to the tragedy" of Israel's embroilment in Lebanon. He'd set himself a July 7th deadline, and he intended to keep it.
But rather than bringing sighs of relief to the soldiers who serve in the zone, that reaffirmed commitment is provoking ever greater criticism and eroding Mr Barak's popularity. The prime minister gave his interviews just hours after another soldier was killed in the zone - the seventh soldier to die in barely two weeks. The new loss of life proved that, despite sending his air force to raid power stations and other non-military targets in Lebanon earlier in the week, Mr Barak had failed to halt the rising death toll. This was underlined by another comment he made in his interviews: "We shall respond when and how we want with very painful strikes against Lebanese territory."
In fact, his renewed pledge only gave new emphasis to the question being asked of the prime minister more and more openly, by more and more Israelis: If you're pulling the army out anyway, why wait for July? Why not do it now?
"The soldiers want to come home," a headline in the Ma'ariv daily announced yesterday, summarising the mood among troops in the security zone who now refer to themselves as "sitting ducks".
The latest violence torpedoed an American- and French-mediated effort to restore relative calm. Israeli, Syrian and Lebanese delegates had gathered at a UN compound in Nakura, in southern Lebanon, to discuss the rules of engagement for this prolonged mini-war.
But Israel refused to proceed with the meeting when word of the Hizbullah attack came through, claiming that the fatal fire had violated the rules of engagement, which outlaw firing from civilian areas.
While Lebanon braces itself for an Israeli response to the killing, Mr Barak may be disinclined to launch further heavy air raids, since he risks causing civilian casualties, prompting international condemnation and igniting further clashes. He is also desperate to persuade Syria to return to the negotiating table. If he does nothing, however, he risks a further decline in popularity. One opinion poll published yesterday puts him just 5 per cent ahead of Mr Netanyahu, who is no longer a Knesset member and who is under police investigation on suspicion of corruption.
The B and C Irish battalions in the Lebanon came under fire yesterday as Hizbullah fighters and Israeli-backed militia traded gunfire. A spokesman for the Irish Army said last night there was heavy machine-gun fire which caused the battalions to retreat to shelters.
The spokesman added that the situation around the Irish positions in south Lebanon had become "very tense".