EIGHTEEN Norwegian observers, recruited to oversee the transfer of power in Hebron from Israel to the Palestinians, arrived there yesterday just as the Israeli government was voting to delay that handover until next month at the earliest.
Israel had been scheduled to pull most of its troops out of Hebron - the last city it controls in the West Bank - back in March, but postponed the redeployment because of a series of suicide bombings.
At a cabinet meeting yesterday, ministers voted to delay the handover again, deciding that several weeks of consultations were required before it could be completed.
Clearly, the Hebron withdrawal is more complex than previous stages of the West Bank pull out.
About 450 Jewish settlers live in the centre and a contingent of Israeli soldiers is to stay on to protect them.
Nevertheless, yesterday's cabinet decision also involved an element of political expediency.
Several prominent ultra Orthodox leaders had urged the Prime Minister, Mr Shimon Peres, to defer the withdrawal at least until after the elections on May 29th, and intimated that he would have no chance of winning their prime ministerial blessing if he did not accede.
Hebron residents yesterday decried the latest delay as an Israeli breach of the peace accords.
Yesterday's Israeli cabinet meeting also discussed the latest flare up on the Lebanon border. Five Israeli soldiers were injured by a Hizbullah road side bomb early yesterday morning, prompting derisive opposition criticism of the so called truce that Mr Peres so delightedly trumpeted just two weeks ago. Israel responded with air raids on suspected Hizbullah bases in Mleeta hills, in the Iqlim al Toufah mountainous area.
Later yesterday, Mr Peres held a series of meetings with Israeli Arab leaders, whose public pledges of support he desperately needs in order to mobilise Israeli Arab voters to support him on May 29th. Although he refused some of the leaders' demands the indications are that the Arab community is slowly swinging back behind Mr Peres, having earlier threatened to boycott him in protest at Israel's bombardment of Lebanon.
A few days ago, Mr Peres's Likud rival, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, staged a lightning tour of several Arab villages, hoping to capitalise on the dissatisfaction with Mr Peres. According to one Hebrew newspaper report, he received a surprisingly warm welcome from small knots of enthusiastic villagers. Only later did it transpire, the paper reported, that the "Israeli Arabs" were Likud activists who had dressed up in Arab garb for the occasion.
David Horovitz is managing editor of the Jerusalem Report
. The Israeli army said yesterday it was imposing a night curlew on the Palestinian town of Halhoul near Hebron in the West Bank because of disturbances.
An Israeli soldier and a policeman were injured in the West Bank yesterday when a petrol bomb was hurled at their car on the Ramallah bypass road, Israel's Itim news agency said.