The United States has not followed Israel\'s lead, and still wishes to maintain contact with Yasser Arafat as the head of the Palestinian Authority. So said Deputy Secretary of State William Burns this afternoon. The EU\'s Javier Solana said that the Union would continue to negotiate with Arafat and, despite Israel\'s objections, would even keep sending money to the PA [although see below].
Jordan’s King Abdullah II told a London newspaper that if the situation in the Palestinian autonomy escalates and leads to mass Arab flight, Jordan will close the Jordan River crossings and not let his Arab brethren in. The King said he would not get militarily involved in the dispute.
Mayor Ron Nachman of Ariel told Voice of Israel Radio today:
\"I simply cannot understand what happened to our national pride. How can it be that Marwan Bargouti says [this week] that the terrorism should concentrate only on \'settlers\' [within Judea, Samaria, and Gaza] and yet the government doesn\'t even react? How is it that Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin is allowed to live - why shouldn\'t we send him to paradise? True, the army has taken action against terrorists - but who are they? They\'re not the leaders!\" Nachman said that the immediate reaction to last night\'s attack should be the announcement of a new neighborhood of 1,000 housing units in Emanuel - 100 for each casualty of last night.
Yediot Acharonot\'s military commentator Alex Fishman wrote today that the massacre was the \"last straw,\" and that it marks the end of the Oslo accords and of the Palestinian Authority in its current format. \"Even Javier Solana of the European Union said last night, \'This is the end of the Palestinian Authority.\'\" Commentators predict that the next step in the gradual escalation of actions against the PA would be the takeover of areas under full Palestinian control and the disarming of the residents there. It is assumed that Arafat will not be directly targeted.
Jordan’s King Abdullah II told a London newspaper that if the situation in the Palestinian autonomy escalates and leads to mass Arab flight, Jordan will close the Jordan River crossings and not let his Arab brethren in. The King said he would not get militarily involved in the dispute.
Mayor Ron Nachman of Ariel told Voice of Israel Radio today:
\"I simply cannot understand what happened to our national pride. How can it be that Marwan Bargouti says [this week] that the terrorism should concentrate only on \'settlers\' [within Judea, Samaria, and Gaza] and yet the government doesn\'t even react? How is it that Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin is allowed to live - why shouldn\'t we send him to paradise? True, the army has taken action against terrorists - but who are they? They\'re not the leaders!\" Nachman said that the immediate reaction to last night\'s attack should be the announcement of a new neighborhood of 1,000 housing units in Emanuel - 100 for each casualty of last night.
Yediot Acharonot\'s military commentator Alex Fishman wrote today that the massacre was the \"last straw,\" and that it marks the end of the Oslo accords and of the Palestinian Authority in its current format. \"Even Javier Solana of the European Union said last night, \'This is the end of the Palestinian Authority.\'\" Commentators predict that the next step in the gradual escalation of actions against the PA would be the takeover of areas under full Palestinian control and the disarming of the residents there. It is assumed that Arafat will not be directly targeted.