Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon faced a right-wing backlash for announcing a tentative ceasefire with the Palestinians that could help smooth U.S. efforts to form a broad alliance against terrorism.
The truce declared on Tuesday hung in the balance after Palestinian gunmen killed a Jewish settler woman in the West Bank and Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian during a gunbattle in the Gaza Strip earlier today.
Sharon summoned his security cabinet for an emergency session to weigh Israel's next move as critics blasted him for displaying political ineptitude since last week's nightmare suicide-hijack assaults on New York and Washington.
Supporters of the ceasefire said it could open the way to talks between Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres aimed at halting nearly a year of violence in which more than 700 people have been killed.
But critics said Sharon had caved in to foreign pressure, one day after vowing in an interview not to make concessions to Palestinians and thereby pay the price for Washington's drive to include Arab and Muslim nations in a mooted global coalition.
Critics also argued that before his about-turn, Sharon had made an error of judgement by allowing the army to launch offensives in the West Bank last week when the United States was making a new effort to calm Israeli-Palestinian violence.
"The prime minister...is still trying to give himself credit for the 'clever trick," political commentator Hemi Shalev wrote in the Ma'ariv newspaper.
There is another version, of course. Sharon, with many of Israel's top political and securi ty echelons, made a mistake last week in understanding and deciphering American strategy. Many Israelis expected the attacks in the United States to generate greater sympathy and understanding abroad for their battle against Palestinian suicide bombers and gunmen. Some thought this would give the military a freer hand.
But the military offensives in the West Bank quickly became an obstacle to Washington's attempts to enlist Arab and Islamic countries against Osama bin Laden's network of Muslim militants.
Arab states made clear they would find it hard to support the alliance fully as long as Israel, a key U.S. ally, pursued military operations in Palestinian areas. Intense international diplomacy followed to persuade Sharon and Arafat to make peace.