A new American attempt at Middle East diplomacy got off to a bad start yesterday, with both Israel and the Palestinians raising immediate objections.
Israel Radio, meanwhile, claimed that several Israeli ministers expected their government, sooner or later, to order the deportation of the Palestinian Authority President, Mr Yasser Arafat. And a new opinion poll found 61 per cent of Israelis fear an imminent descent into regional war.
Even before the US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, had formally endorsed ceasefire proposals drafted by the Mitchell Commission - the US-led panel that investigated eight months of violence - Israel's Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, had repeated his objection to a clause that calls for an immediate freeze on all building at Jewish settlements in the occupied territories.
And no sooner had Mr Powell given a press conference to urge both parties "to move forward on the basis of this report" than Palestinian officials were protesting that he now appeared to be demanding an unconditional ceasefire first, and the settlement freeze only at a later stage.
The Palestinian Authority officials said they had already accepted the Mitchell proposals precisely because they required the settlement freeze as part of the ceasefire package, and they rejected the notion of an unconditional ceasefire. The officials also indicated they were dissatisfied with Mr Powell's appointment of the US Ambassador in Jordan, Mr William Burns, as the most senior official overseeing ceasefire planning and implementation. They said they would seek some kind of international conference or forum to advance the issue.
The American initiative immediately caused cracks in the so-called "national unity" government. While the Prime Minister, head of the hardline Likud, was repeating his opposition to a settlement freeze, his Foreign Minister, Mr Shimon Peres, a Labour veteran, was welcoming the peacemaking effort, in remarks he made in Moscow. The National Security Minister, Mr Uzi Landau, another Likud member, intimated that he and some other rightists might resign from the government if it agreed to the initiative.
According to Israel Radio, several unnamed ministers expect Mr Sharon to send Mr Arafat back into exile, and that the Palestinian Authority will collapse.
The radio report also featured speculation as to which Palestinian leaders might fill a postArafat vacuum, with the Palestinian Authority's Gaza and West Bank security chiefs, Mr Mohammad Dahlan and Mr Jibril Rajoub, respectively, judged to be among the likely successors.
Mr Rajoub was yesterday preoccupied with assessing the considerable damage to his home in Ramallah, hit on two sides on Sunday by Israeli tank and, reportedly, helicopter fire. Israeli army officers said that their troops had merely returned fire directed at them from the area. Israel's Defence Minister, Mr Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, by contrast, was said to be intending to apologise to Mr Rajoub, who yesterday ordered his security apparatus not to seek to avenge the attack.
In the worst of numerous violent incidents yesterday, two Palestinians were shot at Bureij refugee camp in Gaza: Israeli officials said they had been planting bombs; Palestinian sources said that they died in a gun battle. Israel also blew up an ironworks where it said mortars were being manufactured. On Jerusalem's southern edge, Palestinian gunfire from Beit Jala - in which an Israeli resident of Gilo lost an eye - was met by Israeli tank fire in exchanges that lasted several hours.