Following a marathon five-hour meeting last night, the government declared the Palestinian Authority a \"terrorist supporting entity.\" The security cabinet - Sharon, Peres, and Ben-Eliezer - will decide on the specific steps to be taken in light of this decision; Minister Tzippy Livni told Arutz-7 today that this will happen \"in the next few days.\" She said that the government has now returned the ball to the court of the Palestinian Authority: \"Until now, we said that the PA has to take action against terrorism, or we would declare it a terror-supporting entity. Now we have said that if it in fact takes action against terror, we will not consider it a terror-supporting entity. The burden of proof is upon them.\"



The government also declared the Tanzim, Arafat\'s Force 17 Presidential Guard, and Fatah as terrorist entities, and will take action against them and their leaders accordingly. It was further decided to prevent Arafat from leaving the autonomous areas.



While Labor MKs want to quit the government in protest, MK Yuval Steinitz says that the government\'s decisions were not enough: \"In the meantime, it seems like just a little bit more of the same thing. I picture Arafat laughing to himself and saying, \'Again I\'ve managed to overcome another hurdle.\' … I would have hoped that the instincts of the nation would have penetrated the Cabinet a little bit more.\"