Israel is doing itself no good by resisting the United Nations's fact-finding mission to discover what happened during the highly destructive battle of Jenin earlier this month.
The mission was agreed unanimously by the Security Council two weeks ago, having been drafted by the United States. Its members must adjudicate between Palestinian allegations that a massacre of civilians took place in the city and Israeli insistence that the deaths happened during fighting between its troops and Palestinian forces.
Despite agreeing to receive the group at the weekend, the Israeli government is now trying to restrict its mandate further by limiting it to factual findings without any accompanying observations. This would unacceptably narrow its remit, in which there are likely to be several ambiguous areas of evidence requiring a nuanced assessment, including allegations that disproportionate force was used against civilians and the withholding of medical and humanitarian aid for them - both of them potential war crimes. In the meantime, the evidence on which the inquiry team's judgment will be based is deteriorating and witnesses are dispersed. It is essential that the team gets to work immediately and the Security Council takes urgent action to ensure it does so.
Yesterday's release of a group of Palestinians held in the Nativity Church in Bethlehem is a further reminder that the conflict continues intensively, as was Monday's Israeli raid on Hebron, in which another nine Palestinians were killed. But there has been some political movement in response to pressure on Israel from the US, the UN, the European Union and leading Arab states. At the weekend, President Bush demanded that the Israeli prime minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, should lift the siege on the Palestinian leader, Mr Yassir Arafat, in Ramallah.
In accepting a US formula to allow this to happen Mr Sharon has antagonised right wing cabinet members. But he has kept on the right side of Mr Bush, who has come under strong pressure from Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia to restore a political process. The Saudis have made it clear to Mr Bush that the Israeli-Palestinian question must be addressed before any action is taken against Iraq; they have denied mounting pressure for an oil embargo.
Mr Sharon seems to have sought to link Israeli acceptance of the US plan with resistance to the UN investigation, in the belief that it will find against Israel. That is why his government insists the mission should contain more military personnel and not be able to interrogate Israeli troops who took part in the Jenin attacks. It will be up to the Security Council to take a firm line against such a cynical interference with its mandate. Whatever the tactical advantages involved, Israel must accept its obligation to co-operate with the investigation. The sooner politics moves back into the frame the better.