MIDDLE EAST: Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, did not order an immediate retaliatory strike yesterday to the suicide bombing which killed 14 passengers on a bus in northern Israel on Monday. The move appears to be an effort not to undermine a new US mediation effort in the region, and not to complicate US preparations for possible military action in Iraq.
Defence Minister, Mr Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, intimated that a massive response was not in the offing, saying Israel would strike as and when it saw fit.
He insisted, however, that Israel had not been subject to any US pressure to hold back after the bombing.
But Interior Minister, Mr Eli Yishai, conceded that Israel would take US interests into account when considering its response.
"There are those [in Israel] who say that we need to react now and immediately with all power and all force," Mr Yishai said.
"On the other hand, we could cause difficulties for the Americans. If the Americans attack Iraq, it's in our interest as well as that of the Americans."
After the last suicide attack in Israel that caused multiple casualties - a bus bombing in Tel Aviv last month that killed six people - Mr Sharon sent bulldozers into Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat's compound in Ramallah to tear it down.
But in an embarrassing about-face, Mr Sharon had to call off the demolition job a few days later, under intense US pressure.
During his visit to Washington last week, Mr Sharon heard from President Bush that if the US attacked Iraq, it would do everything to prevent Saddam Hussein from firing missiles at the Jewish state.
But the Israeli leader was also told that the US expected him to fulfil his part of the bargain by ensuring there was no escalation in the conflict with the Palestinians so as not to complicate US efforts to persuade moderate Arab regimes to go along with a strike against Baghdad.
With this in mind, Mr Sharon might feel that a major military operation would not be the best way to greet special US envoy to the Middle East, Mr William Burns, who arrives in Israel today as part of a tour of the region.
Talking to reporters in Damascus yesterday, Mr Burns said that if the sides were "to succeed in ending occupation, building two states and resuming progress toward comprehensive peace, it is critically important to stop the violence that has done so much to undermine legitimate Palestinian aspirations".
Mr Burns, who does not plan to meet Mr Arafat during his stopover, will discuss a US-crafted diplomatic road map aimed at ultimately reigniting the shattered peace process.
The plan calls for a regional peace conference in the autumn of 2003 and the phased creation of an independent Palestinian state by 2005.
The militant Islamic Jihad, which claimed responsibility for Monday's attack, yesterday named the two bombers as Mohammed Hassanein and Ashraf Al Asmar, both 18-year-old residents of the West Bank town of Jenin.
Relatives of the two began removing belongings from the family homes yesterday, anticipating that they would be demolished by the Israeli army.