Arafat\'s original \"ceasefire\" announcement yesterday appeared to be a result of his fear that Israel\'s retaliation was finally about to rain down on him, following the suicide slaughter in Tel Aviv on Friday night. The bomber detonated himself shortly after 11 PM outside a Tel Aviv nightclub, killing 17 young people on the spot. Two more have since died of their wounds, and another two or three are in very critical condition. Close to 100 people were injured. Most of the dead were immigrant teenagers from the former Soviet Union. Ten of them were buried today. Five of the victims studied in the Shevach school in Tel Aviv - two others were graduates of the school - and two were students of the Ort High School in Netanya.
Deputy Minister Avi Yechezkel (Labor) represented the government at one of the funerals today. He told Arutz-7 today, \"Arafat has, with the means available to him, declared war on Israel.\" Yechezkel continued, \"We must make it clear that if within 24 hours, or 48 at the most, he doesn\'t issue an absolutely unambiguous order to stop the violence, then we have no need for Arafat or the Palestinian Authority... Even I, a member of the left, say that if he wants war, then he\'ll get it. If he doesn\'t issue the order and return all the Hamas terrorists to prison, then that\'s the end of Arafat and the PA, and maybe we\'ll have to say that there is just no solution to this problem...\"
Two other attempted attacks on Friday night were overshadowed by the slaughter. Mevaseret Zion, just to the west of Jerusalem and close to the Green Line, was the site of the explosion of an Arab-planted bomb. A bit later, a firebomb was thrown at a home in Jerusalem\'s Pisgat Ze’ev neighborhood; no one was hurt in either case.
Deputy Minister Avi Yechezkel (Labor) represented the government at one of the funerals today. He told Arutz-7 today, \"Arafat has, with the means available to him, declared war on Israel.\" Yechezkel continued, \"We must make it clear that if within 24 hours, or 48 at the most, he doesn\'t issue an absolutely unambiguous order to stop the violence, then we have no need for Arafat or the Palestinian Authority... Even I, a member of the left, say that if he wants war, then he\'ll get it. If he doesn\'t issue the order and return all the Hamas terrorists to prison, then that\'s the end of Arafat and the PA, and maybe we\'ll have to say that there is just no solution to this problem...\"
Two other attempted attacks on Friday night were overshadowed by the slaughter. Mevaseret Zion, just to the west of Jerusalem and close to the Green Line, was the site of the explosion of an Arab-planted bomb. A bit later, a firebomb was thrown at a home in Jerusalem\'s Pisgat Ze’ev neighborhood; no one was hurt in either case.