A senior Israeli official admitted Friday that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat had no magic wand to stop the violence in the Palestinian territories, and played down a reported 24-hour deadline for ending it.
"We have noted that orders and instructions (from Arafat) have been given, but the results do not satisfy us at all," Danny Yatom, principal adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, said on Israeli army radio.
Yatom was speaking after Arafat and former Israeli prime minister Shimon Peres reached an agreement early Thursday on measures to quell the violence that has rocked the Palestinian territories for five weeks, killing some 170 people.
The measures began to be implemented Thursday, until a car bomb claimed by the extremist Palestinian Islamic Jihad group killed two Israelis in west Jerusalem, dealing a further blow to peace efforts.
"It's a process," Yatom said. "It was quite clear that Yasser Arafat could not stop all violent activities with a magic wand."
Peres himself recognized Friday that Arafat "can't stop the violence at the push of a button."
"Yasser Arafat cannot control everyone who has a weapon and we must not forget that he also has opponents."
Late Thursday the Israeli security cabinet decided to give Arafat 24 hours to implement the accord, but Yatom said, "I suggest we should not be constantly looking at our watches and counting every minute".
He said Israel was expecting a rapid reduction in anti-Israeli violence, which erupted after Israeli right-wing opposition leader Ariel Sharon visited east Jerusalem's sensitive al-Aqsa mosque compound, a site sacred to Jews as well as Muslims, on September 28.
"We may perceive in the next few hours a more effective implementation of the instructions and orders given by Arafat to reduce the violence," Yatom said.
"We must look at what happens on the ground, to see if there are actions as well as words, a real willingness and capacity of the Palestinian Authority to achieve calm."
Gilad Sher, Barak's chief of staff, was also cautiously optimistic.
He said Israel had witnessed a "certain reduction in the violence and in the firing at our settlements and at our cities."
But he claimed that Arafat had reneged on part of his deal with Peres, which was that he would make a joint announcement with Barak ordering "their forces and their respective publics simultaneously to stop the violence."
Arafat's self-rule authority issued a statement Thursday calling for demonstrations to continue against the Israeli occupation but said they should be peaceful.
The joint statement intended to be issued after the Peres-Arafat meeting was never made, reportedly because of disagreement over the wording.
Despite Yatom's claims, Peres said the Palestinian leadership's call on Thursday for demonstrations to be peaceful "was in line with" the agreement he had made with Arafat.
Looking forward, Sher said that if the aftermath to Friday prayers is peaceful "and if there is a continuation of this reduction (in violence), I believe that we could be carefully hopeful.” – JERUSALEM (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
