Leaving their options open and observers in suspense, IDF forces left Ramallah this morning after a six-hour raid into the Palestinian Authority capital in retaliation for yesterday\'s terrorist slaughter in Megiddo. Some 50 tanks entered the city during the night, surrounded Arafat\'s Mukata headquarters, and blew up several buildings there, including the Mukata prison, the military intelligence building, and several smaller structures. The bridge connecting Arafat\'s residential quarters and his offices was also destroyed. During the battles, two Arabs were killed, including an officer of Arafat\'s personal guard.
The operation was \"designed to focus on the Palestinian Authority\'s direct administrative responsibility for its policy of terror in general,\" stated Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, \"as well as the renewed wave of terrorism.\" Finance Minister Silvan Shalom said this morning that Israel\'s military response must be much stronger, and hinted that this is in fact what will occur. \"If we do not react now,\" Shalom said, \"we are liable to go on this way for years, with a major terrorist attack every week or two, while we say that the time is not ripe for a response... I have also been demanding for a year now to expel Arafat.\"
Diplomatic sources in Jerusalem, however, say that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is not interested in a stronger reaction before his meeting with U.S. President George Bush in Washington next Monday. Sharon would rather concentrate on heading off a possible American diplomatic initiative involving a full withdrawal from all of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, in return for the removal of the \"Right of Return\" from the negotiating table.
The operation was \"designed to focus on the Palestinian Authority\'s direct administrative responsibility for its policy of terror in general,\" stated Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, \"as well as the renewed wave of terrorism.\" Finance Minister Silvan Shalom said this morning that Israel\'s military response must be much stronger, and hinted that this is in fact what will occur. \"If we do not react now,\" Shalom said, \"we are liable to go on this way for years, with a major terrorist attack every week or two, while we say that the time is not ripe for a response... I have also been demanding for a year now to expel Arafat.\"
Diplomatic sources in Jerusalem, however, say that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is not interested in a stronger reaction before his meeting with U.S. President George Bush in Washington next Monday. Sharon would rather concentrate on heading off a possible American diplomatic initiative involving a full withdrawal from all of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, in return for the removal of the \"Right of Return\" from the negotiating table.