THE United States is stepping up its efforts tin restore calm to the Middle East after two weeks of daily clashes. Israel's Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, has been summoned to Washington and the White House is working behind the scenes to arrange talks between him and the Palestinian leader, Mr Yasser Arafat.
Mr Netanyahu initially tried to wriggle out of the journey to Washington, saying on Tuesday that it was not particularly convenient.
But President Clinton evidently turned some screws, and Mr Netanyahu relented yesterday; his talks in the White House are scheduled for next Monday.
The Israeli prime minister's reluctance to meet the American President is understandable. While Mr Netanyahu's government has blamed the recent spate of successful and botched suicide bombings and West Bank clashes on Mr Arafat, charging that the Palestinian leader has backtracked on his pledge to fight rather than foster terrorism, the American administration has quietly signalled that it holds Israel at least equally to blame.
The United States strongly opposed last month's start of building work for a Jewish neighbourhood at Har Homa in East Jerusalem.
American diplomatic sources are being quoted here as blaming Mr Netanyahu for the consequent "catastrophic" and "disastrous" worsening of Israel's international status.
Mr Clinton, who has been meeting with Jordan's King Hussein and is today set to hold talks with Israel's relatively pragmatic defence minister, Mr Yitzhak Mordechai, is expected to press Mr Netanyahu to suspend work at Har Homa, to accelerate West Bank land handovers to the Palestinians, and possibly to start intensive talks on a final peace arrangement.
Mr Netanyahu's current right wing coalition would almost certainly collapse, however, were he to grant what would be seen by hardliners as concessions to the Palestinians.
But Mr Netanyahu is now tentatively exploring the possibility of forming a more moderate coalition, by inviting the opposition Labour Party to join him in a "unity government".
Clashes continued in the West Bank yesterday. A minibus carrying Israeli soldiers north of Ramallah was hit by a petrol bomb; the driver lost control and the bus overturned, injuring 11 soldiers. Jelazoun refugee camp, from which the culprits were believed to have come, was placed under curfew.
In Gaza, mourning tents were erected at the homes of Tuesday's two suicide bombers. Islamic Jihad, the extremist group that initially took responsibility for the blasts, which killed only the bombers, yesterday backtracked and blamed Israel. But Israeli and Palestinian officials confirmed that both men had set out on suicide missions.
Mr Arafat's security forces yesterday arrested more than a dozen Islamic Jihad activists the Palestinian leader has always shown more readiness to act against this relatively small extremist group than against the more widely supported Hamas.