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Israeli Forces on Alert After Threats of Palestinian Resistance Operations
CAIRO, July 15 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Israeli police and occupation forces were put on high alert Sunday following vows from Palestinian activists to keep up the armed campaign against Israeli occupation amid fading hopes for getting the two sides on the negotiation table.
On the ground there was a rare day of relative calm, punctuated by scattered gunfire and other minor incidents, as Israeli and Palestinian leaders met in Cairo to discuss the ongoing violence.
Public radio cited an unnamed top security official who said several Palestinian occupation resistance groups, including the faction from Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, were planning a string of deadly anti-occupation operations.
Meanwhile Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres held Arafat here Sunday to a pledge of "seven days of zero violence" as a starting point to end 10 months of bloodshed.
Neither Peres nor Arafat, who met for the first time in two weeks, gave any hint they were closer to ensuring that a June 13 truce brokered by Washington would take hold.
However, Peres said that a "war is not an option" and that Arafat was still a negotiating partner despite attacks on him from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's radical government.
Peres said he reminded Arafat that U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell late last month proposed starting off with "seven days of zero violence" and that "you have accepted it" along with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
"Now we have to keep the credibility," Peres said. "We cannot...agree to something and say the next day it is impossible."
Arafat, who has previously said the seven days were completed and it was time to move on to the next stage of the process outlined in the internationally backed Mitchell report in May, left Cairo without making any comment to the press.
During his tour of the region, Powell forged an outline to implement Middle East peace steps that calls for seven violence-free days, a six-week cooling off period and then several months of confidence building measures.
But Powell's timeline is intentionally vague on several points and is largely dependent upon Sharon's interpretation of Arafat's behavior, leaving numerous pitfalls.
The top Israeli diplomat, who shared the 1994 Nobel Peace prize with Arafat for the Oslo peace accords, said ending violence includes stopping Palestinian "incitement" as well as improving conditions in the territories.
Peres also said he had asked Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak here to urge Arafat to stop violence in Rafah, where gun battles between Palestinian activists and Israeli soldiers are frequent.
Mubarak met first with Peres and then Arafat separately.
Peres' remarks appeared to re-emphasize the burden Israel has put on Arafat to end 10 months of violence and dash Egyptian hopes that Israel might show "reciprocity" in leading the way out of the morass.
While giving no concrete sign of progress, Peres said "I'm leaving Cairo with the sense that there is a hope to continue the Mitchell report," which forms the basis of the June 13 truce.
Analysts say Egypt and Arab countries are worried that Israel might take tougher military action that could even spark a regional war.
"All these stories that we want to go back to the territories or to dismantle the Palestinian Authority or to attack the position of Arafat is total nonsense," Peres told reporters after meeting Arafat.
A story in Jane's Foreign Report, a London-based defense publication, said Israel was mulling an invasion of the Palestinian territories that would drive out the Palestinian leadership.
The Israeli and Palestinian leaders last met in Lisbon on June 29 when Arafat called for international observers and a renewal of peace talks while Peres also signaled his country's wish for peace.
Several radical Israeli ministers had heavily criticized Peres for holding talks with the Palestinian leader, accusing the minister of justifying "Arafat's terrorism."
Peres last visited Egypt in April. Following a meeting between the two men, Mubarak announced that Israel and the Palestinians had agreed to a ceasefire, but Peres later distanced himself from the Egyptian president's comments.
The incident left bad feelings between the two men as each blamed the other publicly for the fiasco.
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