Prime Minister Ariel Sharon\'s new mini-Cabinet on security matters convened today for the first time. Its 13 members were not expected to make any far-reaching defense decisions today; briefings from IDF and GSS representatives on the warfare in Yesha and terrorist warnings were on the agenda. Arutz-7\'s Haggai Huberman reported before the meeting, \"It\'s hard to know if real decisions will be made, largely because of the complex composition of the group - although the army will come with its long-prepared ideas for operations... The army foresees, despite the relative calm, an increase in violence towards the end of the month. The PA has an interest in dragging the entire Arab world into conflict with us, and will therefore step up the violence in the hope that we will also respond in kind. Their other goal is internationalization of the conflict... The security analysts feel that Arafat is very bothered by the fact of a national-unity government, because the Palestinians built much of their strategy on the fact that there were two forces here pulling in different directions.\"
Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze\'evi, a member of the mini-security cabinet, talked with Arutz-7 about what he expected from today\'s meeting: \"There will be an intelligence briefing, so I doubt that there will be time for an in-depth discussion of the defense situation and practical solutions.\" Ze\'evi praised the government\'s encirclement of Ramallah, and said that this was the proper way to treat the city from which many terrorists have come in recent months to perpetrate fatal attacks upon Israelis.
Ze\'evi is now serving for the first time in ten years as a government minister; he was a Minister without Portfolio for a year in the Shamir government, until Jan. 1992. He refused to criticize Sharon for placing the responsibility for the encirclement on local commanders, even though \"it is clear that the decision was preceded by days of high-level meetings with army and government officials.\"
Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze\'evi, a member of the mini-security cabinet, talked with Arutz-7 about what he expected from today\'s meeting: \"There will be an intelligence briefing, so I doubt that there will be time for an in-depth discussion of the defense situation and practical solutions.\" Ze\'evi praised the government\'s encirclement of Ramallah, and said that this was the proper way to treat the city from which many terrorists have come in recent months to perpetrate fatal attacks upon Israelis.
Ze\'evi is now serving for the first time in ten years as a government minister; he was a Minister without Portfolio for a year in the Shamir government, until Jan. 1992. He refused to criticize Sharon for placing the responsibility for the encirclement on local commanders, even though \"it is clear that the decision was preceded by days of high-level meetings with army and government officials.\"