Mideast Cease-Fire Put to Test

Israelis and Palestinians eyed each other suspiciously and traded accusations Wednesday as a tenuous cease-fire met its first hours of test and rebuttal.

An otherwise quiet day was punctuated by a fierce gun and tank battle late in the afternoon in the volatile West Bank city of Hebron. Palestinian television reported that one Palestinian police officer was killed and several people injured. Two Israelis were wounded late Wednesday when an explosive blasted their car near a Jewish settlement in the West Bank.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Tuesday ordered his forces to withdraw from Palestinian territory and to halt offensive operations in response to a wide-ranging cease-fire declared by Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat.

The moves toward a truce came after intense international pressure. The Bush administration has been urging calm here as it attempts to cobble together an alliance to fight the terrorism blamed for last week’s incidents in New York and Pennsylvania and at the Pentagon. The U.S. government hopes to include moderate Arab and Muslim states in the effort, but festering Israeli-Palestinian strife could block their cooperation.

No one here would be surprised if the cease-fire collapsed. It is the latest of many declared truces, none of which stuck.

After a year of mutual bloodletting, in which Israelis have seen families torn apart by Palestinian suicide bombers and Palestinians have seen their towns blasted by Israeli warplanes and missiles, the depth of hatred, anger and mistrust cannot be underestimated.

But U.S. officials and European diplomats believe that the two sides realize they must take steps to resolve their conflict or risk the wrath of the Western world. The officials hope that the new actions signal a breakthrough.

“I felt like this event [the suicide hijackings] may shake up the attitudes of the Middle East,” President Bush said Wednesday in Washington. “People are resolving to show the world there can be peace there as well.”

Bush added that he expected Arafat, especially, to “back up his strong statement with action.”

Still, on the ground, resistance came from many quarters.

The spiritual leader of the largest militant Palestinian Islamic organization, Hamas, rejected any cease-fire. Hamas is responsible for many of the suicide bombings that have terrorized Israelis.

“As long as [Israeli] occupation exists, there will be no talk of a cease-fire,” Sheik Ahmed Yassin told reporters in the Gaza Strip. “Enough of deception and tricks.”

Arafat’s ability to rein in Hamas and other radical groups, plus his own expanding Fatah militia, will be a major test of the cease-fire. Israeli political officials expressed considerable doubt Wednesday that he will succeed, saying he has neither the desire nor the ability.

Israeli military officials, however, said the day passed with a marked decrease in shootings and other violent incidents.

“If one of those groups breaks the cease-fire, then there is no cease-fire,” Sharon advisor Avi Pazner said. There would have to be 48 hours of quiet, Pazner said, before Sharon would allow his foreign minister, longtime peace advocate Shimon Peres, to meet with Arafat. The contact would be the first between the two men in months.

Most ordinary Palestinians and Israelis remained skeptical.

Many Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip complained Wednesday that little in their lives had changed. Tight Israeli roadblocks continued to separate towns, and troops held their positions near Jewish settlements and especially throughout the Gaza Strip.

Marwan Barghouti, a key leader of the year-old Palestinian uprising, said Wednesday that no cease-fire would hold unless Israel made significant political concessions to the Palestinians--something Sharon has shown no willingness to do.

However, in the West Bank towns of Jenin and Jericho, under siege since last week, residents took to the streets and celebrated the withdrawal of Israeli tanks.

It was more difficult to gauge Israeli reaction. Spokesmen for Sharon indicated that the prime minister was waiting to see whether the cease-fire took hold, and the government deliberately avoided stating whether the 48-hour period had begun or when it would.

Israelis have not had much time to assess whether the cease-fire seems real. The two-day start of the Jewish new year kept stores and businesses closed until today, and families Wednesday pursued the usual holiday fare of picnics, the beach and worship at synagogues, where security was tighter than it has been in years.

Any conciliatory moves by Sharon undoubtedly would face opposition from his right-wing constituents. Some oppose negotiation with Arafat and want to brand him a terrorist enemy.

Sharon was to consult late Wednesday with Peres to decide whether to allow the foreign minister to meet with Arafat.