Jerusalem, Oct 18 (AFP) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak said Wednesday he feared "days of fire" were still ahead after three weeks of deadly unrest and said he was not yet convinced that Palestinian leader Arafat was a partner for peace.
"The days ahead will be difficult, days of fire and of fighting," Barak said in an address at a kibbutz, or collective farm, on the shores of the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel.
Israel had achieved its objectives at the Sharm-el-Sheikh summit Tuesday, where the two sides committed themselves to taking steps to halt the violence, and Arafat had given "concrete commitments," Barak said in a speech broadcast by Israeli television.
"We have done everything, left no stone unturned, to put an end to the conflict but I am not convinced that at the moment we have a partner for peace," he said.
The Labor party leader, without a parliamentary majority for three months, also issued an appeal to political opponents including Likud party leader Ariel Sharon to join forces with the government, saying: "It is not the time for politics, the country is more important than a political fight and personal considerations."
But he warned: "The true test is still to come. There is no guarantee that the difficult days are behind us."
Referring to a bomb blast in the Gaza Strip late Wednesday that damaged a bus carrying women and children from a Jewish settlement, he said: "I'm not sure that will be the last test ... we will not bow to violence."
Barak had called on Sharon to join an emergency government in the face of the bloodletting that has left more than 100 people dead, most of them Palestinians.
But the Likud leader has abandoned talks with the Labor leader, complaining that he had agreed at Sharm to agree to continue negotiating with the Palestinians despite the violence. - AFP
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