ISRAEL: In a decision which incensed the Palestinians, but seemed more the product of internal Israeli politics than any far-reaching strategic plan, Israel's security cabinet decided yesterday to draw back tanks from the compound of Mr Yasser Arafat in Ramallah, but not to allow the Palestinian President to venture out of the West Bank city.
israel: A Palestinian minister, Mr Saeb Erekat, labelled the decision "shameless", and said it "reflects the fact that this government has no political programme whatsoever and is determined to pursue the path of destruction".
In protests over Israel's refusal to lift the two-month travel ban, Palestinian officials, who said the move was aimed at humiliating Mr Arafat even further, announced that they would not attend a joint security meeting scheduled for last night.
The security cabinet, made up of leading ministers, took the decision despite the fact the Palestinian Authority said last week it had arrested three suspects in the killing last October of the far-right Israeli Transport Minister, Mr Rehavam Ze'evi - the central condition imposed by Mr Sharon for the lifting of the travel ban.
International and Arab pressure on Mr Sharon to remove the ban will grow as the Arab summit in Beirut next month draws closer. It will be very difficult for Arab leaders to attend the conference while Mr Arafat, who has been at every summit since 1968, is Israel's virtual prisoner in Ramallah.
The decision, to a large extent, was the product of a compromise between the ministers of the centre-left Labour Party who support lifting the ban on Mr Arafat, and far-right ministers who threatened to quit yesterday if the Palestinian leader was allowed to exit Ramallah.
The left-wing leader of the opposition, Mr Yossi Sarid, called the decision "ridiculous". "So now Yasser Arafat can go to the grocery and to the local laundry [in Ramallah]," he scoffed.
If the decision was an attempt by Mr Sharon to avoid a coalition crisis, while at the same time partially satisfying international pressure, any respite is certain to be temporary, with the up-coming Arab summit likely to force the travel ban issue back onto the agenda.
Meanwhile, Senator Hillary Clinton, who is on a 36-hour visit to Israel, continued her strident attacks on Mr Arafat yesterday, accusing the Palestinian leader of bearing "responsibility for the violence that has occurred, it rests on his shoulders, even today he could do more to end the terrorism".
Mrs Clinton, who has a large Jewish constituency in New York, visited a pizzeria in central Jerusalem where a suicide bomber blew himself up last August, killing 15 people. She also met Mr Sharon and visited the grave of the murdered Yitzhak Rabin. "Wherever terrorism strikes is ground zero," she said, drawing a parallel between Israel and the US.
Mrs Clinton, who said on Saturday that Mr Arafat had "failed as a leader", incensed many Jews during a 1999 visit when she listened to Mr Arafat's wife, Souha, accuse Israel of using poison gas against the Palestinians but did not refute the remarks.