An Israeli cabinet minister warned on Wednesday that the government's policy of "restraint" against Palestinian violence he described as war cannot continue.
"Our policy of restraint cannot continue. There is no question of us standing idly by when the Palestinians kill Jews," Communications Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer told army radio.
He was speaking ahead of a meeting of the Israeli cabinet due to be chaired later Wednesday by Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who is back home after a trip to the United States where he held talks with US President Bill Clinton to try to find ways to end the bloodletting.
"The situation is getting much worse. There is shooting on the roads. It is war and we want to restore calm," Ben Eliezer said. "But if we can't live in peace they (the Palestinians) will suffer the consequences."
He warned that the Israeli army could tighten further its blockade around the territories, which prevents Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip from traveling to Israel and between Palestinian-run cities.
More than 220 people, most of them Palestinians, have been killed in the violence that has ripped through the occupied territories since a controversial visit on September 28 by Israeli right-wing opposition leader Ariel Sharon to a disputed holy site in Jerusalem.
Ben Eliezer, considered a hawk in Barak's minority government, said it was impossible to think about resuming the stalled peace negotiations with the Palestinians until there was calm in the territories.
His remarks were echoed by Barak's security advisor Danny Yatom.
"The resumption of the political process is not compatible with the wave of terrorism and violence," he told army radio.
Barak last month suspended the seven-year Oslo peace process because of the unrest, although negotiations had been stalled since the failure of the Camp David summit in July.
"The situation on the ground has changed. At the start there were demonstrations and stone-throwing, then gun firing, and now there are real terrorist attacks," Yatom said.
Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben Ami compared the violence to the guerrilla war waged by the Shiite Muslim Hezbollah guerrilla movement against Israeli forces in Lebanon, which left in May after a bloody 22-year occupation.
"Palestinian Authority officials are acting like those of Hezbollah, with (Palestinian leader Yasser) Arafat speaking of jihad (holy war)," Ben Ami said on public radio.
"Israel must prepare itself for the struggle whose principal aim is not to resume negotiations but to show the Palestinians we will not yield to violence," said Ben Ami, one of the more dovish members of the government.
He also said that Israel would look to the international community to call on Arafat to control his people -- JERUSALEM (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
