The Israeli government's policy of isolating Mr Yasser Arafat and weakening his regime is causing ever-deeper international divisions, with the US lining up firmly behind Israel, and the EU, joined by Jordan and Egypt, all now warning that the fall of Mr Arafat would ultimately damage Israel and threaten regional stability.
Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak yesterday met at the Sharm al-Sheikh Red Sea resort with Israel's Defence Minister, Mr Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, leader of the moderate Labour Party. Mr Ben-Eliezer, who used the opportunity to call on Syria's President Bashar Assad to join Israel "at the negotiating table" for peace talks with no preconditions, said he was pleased at this evidence of the solid Israeli-Egyptian peace ties. He said he had tried to convey to the Egyptian president Israel's sense that it "has no real partner for negotiations".
But Mr Mubarak was following a different agenda. His most senior diplomat in Israel [the ambassador was withdrawn a year ago] stressed that the rare meeting, rather than signalling any warming of Israeli-Egyptian ties, demonstrated Mr Mubarak's concern at the potential escalation of the conflict into a regional confrontation. Earlier this week, King Abdullah of Jordan accused Israel of "trying to eliminate the peace process and hit the Palestinian Authority." The king, who is to meet with President Bush tomorrow, is expected to urge the US to pressure Israel into lifting its restrictions on Mr Arafat, who has been confined to Ramallah for almost two months.
EU foreign ministers, meeting in Brussels on Monday, declared that "Israel needs the Palestinian Authority and its elected president, Yasser Arafat, as a partner to negotiate with, both in order to eradicate terrorism and to work towards peace. Their capacity to fight terrorism must not be weakened." All these positions conflict sharply with President Bush's public expressions of deep disappointment with Mr Arafat, and the private calls from leaders as senior as Vice President Richard Cheney for a suspension of all US ties to the Authority.
Yesterday saw yet another suicide bombing - just inside the Israeli border, near the West Bank city of Tulkarm. Twenty-two-year-old Murad Abu Asal, who had been providing intelligence to the Israeli security services met with his two handlers, got into their van, and detonated an explosive device - killing himself and lightly wounding the two Israelis. Also yesterday, a Palestinian refugee family confirmed that their daughter, Wafa Idrees, carried out the suicide bombing in central Jerusalem on Sunday. Ms Wasfiyeh Idrees described her daughter as "a martyr" and "a hero".