The Bush administration is finally stepping up its diplomatic involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian crisis. This comes as more fighting yesterday showed that Israel's so-called quasi-ceasefire was not sufficient to restore calm.
President Bush spoke by telephone to the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, and the Palestinian Authority President, Mr Yasser Arafat. The US President is understood to have set out a timetable for the implementation of a peace initiative. The US aim is to have the sides agree and implement a full ceasefire by June 1st, to follow that with meetings between the Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, and both Mr Sharon and Mr Arafat, to monitor a "cooling-off period" until October, and then to host an Arafat-Sharon summit. It is hoped this would coincide with the 10th anniversary of the Madrid Peace Conference.
Various American mediators are to try and advance this effort over the coming days. Mr Bush, however, is evidently still not ready to hold face-to-face talks with Mr Arafat.
While the US President's personal involvement gives the American initiative more weight, its prospects still appear uncertain. Both the Israelis and the Palestinians profess to welcome the initiative, but the Palestinians say there can be no ceasefire while new settler homes are under construction.
Mr Sharon, on the other hand, has said the settlers' "ongoing needs" must be met. After meeting French leaders in Paris, Mr Arafat said that the Palestinians insist that Israel accept the full American initiative.
Proof of the two leaders' disagreement was to be found all over the West Bank and Gaza yesterday. An Israeli driver was shot dead by Palestinians near the West Bank settlement of Ariel. Palestinian gunfire was directed at two Jewish neighbourhoods on Jerusalem's southern edge, an 86-year-old man was badly hurt and Israel returned fire. Twenty-four Palestinians were injured in clashes near the Rafah refugee camp at the south of the Gaza Strip. And Israel sent its forces into Palestinian territory at several Gaza locations. Near the village of Khouza, Palestinian sources said, Israeli bulldozers uprooted olive trees and destroyed a chicken farm.
This was despite a renewed insistence by Israel that its troops were maintaining a quasi-ceasefire, and were shooting only when their lives were in danger or when they could clearly identify the source of gunfire directed at them. The US Ambassador in Israel, Mr Martin Indyk, called the Israeli announcement "an important first step, which can create some breathing space. And so we welcome it."
But the Palestinian Information Minister, Mr Yasser Abed Rabbo, termed the Israeli "ceasefire" a public relations exercise meant for the American and Israeli publics. Mr Sharon's call for a truce was "misleading", he said, "since this is not a war between two armies or two states", but Israeli aggression against an occupied population.
The Israeli Foreign Minister, Mr Shimon Peres, retorted by suggesting that the Palestinians ["]follow the same trick["] and thus, even if only for public relations purposes, achieve a genuine ceasefire.
Meanwhile, Palestinian officials ridiculed Israeli claims that they were involved in the manufacture of weapons in Gaza. Mr Ghazi Jebali, the Gaza police chief named by Israel as a key figure in the weapons manufacture, said there was "no truth to the claims".
The Palestinian Authority urged Arab countries yesterday to revoke Mauritania's membership in the Arab League for violating a ban on political contacts with Israel. In Cairo, the Arab League Secretary General, Mr Amr Moussa, criticised Mauritania's Foreign Minister for visiting Israel this week.