Despite the official designation of Yasser Arafat as the head of a \"terrorism-supporting entity,\" Foreign Minister Shimon Peres spoke with him today - twice. \"He called me,\" Peres told reporters today, \"and said that he can\'t make arrests because Israel is stopping him from moving his forces. I told him that it\'s now up to him: \'In the next 12 hours, you can determine our attitude to the Palestinian Authority. You have received a list of 36 names [of leading wanted terrorists]. I strongly recommend that you arrest them.\'\" Peres said that the Prime Minister later approved Arafat\'s moving of forces for this purpose, and Peres told Arafat as much.
Public Security Minister Uzi Landau said that the Peres-Arafat talks were out of place: \"I cannot imagine anyone in the American government talking with Taliban or Bin-Laden after they were declared terrorist-supporting organizations. After the Dolphinarium, Sbarro, and the recent Jerusalem and Haifa massacres, and the assassination of Minister Ze\'evi, it\'s about time to adopt another method - not that of talks with Arafat, but that of an Israeli fight against the terrorist infrastructures.\"
Earlier this morning, Arutz-7\'s Ariel Kahane asked correspondent Haggai Huberman, \"What happened to the war?\" The question was asked in light of the lack of follow-up to Monday night\'s dramatic Cabinet decision declaring the Palestinian Authority a \"terrorist-supporting entity.\" Huberman responded,
\"The IDF is sitting in Shechem for the first time in six years, as well as in Ramallah and in other PA-controlled cities. True, this happened yesterday, but the army is still there. The air attacks [of Monday night and Tuesday morning] have stopped in the meantime, and I heard two reasons for this from army officers: One is the heavy rain, and the other is Arafat\'s complaint that he can\'t fight terror because his forces are being attacked... It\'s true that there is a bit of a lull, in order to see what happens… The fact is that there has definitely been a drop - not a total stop - in Palestinian violence, especially in Gaza, because of the shock of the Israeli attacks on Monday night in Gaza and elsewhere.\"
Yesterday morning, the PA arrested four Hamas terrorists - and they were the last ones. Furthermore, the PA released an unknown number of terrorists from its prisons in Shechem, Tul Karem, and Jenin. Palestinian sources explained that they fear that Israel will bomb the prisons housing the terrorists. Israeli military figures responded that they had given the PA guarantees that they would not do so, \"and in any event, the arrests were of the lowest-level operatives.\" The bottom line for the lack of arrests, Israeli officials feel, is that the PA forces don\'t want to clash with Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
Public Security Minister Uzi Landau said that the Peres-Arafat talks were out of place: \"I cannot imagine anyone in the American government talking with Taliban or Bin-Laden after they were declared terrorist-supporting organizations. After the Dolphinarium, Sbarro, and the recent Jerusalem and Haifa massacres, and the assassination of Minister Ze\'evi, it\'s about time to adopt another method - not that of talks with Arafat, but that of an Israeli fight against the terrorist infrastructures.\"
Earlier this morning, Arutz-7\'s Ariel Kahane asked correspondent Haggai Huberman, \"What happened to the war?\" The question was asked in light of the lack of follow-up to Monday night\'s dramatic Cabinet decision declaring the Palestinian Authority a \"terrorist-supporting entity.\" Huberman responded,
\"The IDF is sitting in Shechem for the first time in six years, as well as in Ramallah and in other PA-controlled cities. True, this happened yesterday, but the army is still there. The air attacks [of Monday night and Tuesday morning] have stopped in the meantime, and I heard two reasons for this from army officers: One is the heavy rain, and the other is Arafat\'s complaint that he can\'t fight terror because his forces are being attacked... It\'s true that there is a bit of a lull, in order to see what happens… The fact is that there has definitely been a drop - not a total stop - in Palestinian violence, especially in Gaza, because of the shock of the Israeli attacks on Monday night in Gaza and elsewhere.\"
Yesterday morning, the PA arrested four Hamas terrorists - and they were the last ones. Furthermore, the PA released an unknown number of terrorists from its prisons in Shechem, Tul Karem, and Jenin. Palestinian sources explained that they fear that Israel will bomb the prisons housing the terrorists. Israeli military figures responded that they had given the PA guarantees that they would not do so, \"and in any event, the arrests were of the lowest-level operatives.\" The bottom line for the lack of arrests, Israeli officials feel, is that the PA forces don\'t want to clash with Hamas and Islamic Jihad.