(Ha'aretz) - Aluf Benn In the wake of the Haifa bus bombing, the political-security cabinet Wednesday approved a defense establishment request to carry out more operations against the terror infrastructure in the territories, Israel Radio reported. Security and government sources said there is no intention to launch a "showcase" retaliation, and gave the following reasons: Israel is interested in the convening of the Palestinian institutions over the weekend to elect a prime minister for the Palestinian Authority. A sharp reaction to the attack will give Arafat an excuse to put off the decision and blame Israel. Israel will not mount obstacles in the way of the U.S. attack on Iraq. "This is not the week to get in the Americans' way," a security source said. Finally, the existing security policy has been fairly successful in foiling terrorist attacks and is seen as the reason for the relative quiet of the past weeks. Jerusalem was not fazed by recent international denunciations of the IDF's actions in Gaza. Jerusalem sources noted the official American reaction was "by the book," repeated standard expressions, and remained at the level of a spokesman's statement. The scathing criticism came mainly from Britain and the American media. Israel and the Palestinians are far from the top of the American agenda today.
2003-03-06 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive