Sharon Asks Israelis to Stand Together

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, under mounting criticism for failing to halt Palestinian attacks on Israelis, urged a war-weary nation Thursday to be patient, calm and, above all, united as Israel presses ahead with a massive military campaign in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

Sharon also demanded that Palestinians disarm completely, and he announced plans to build buffer zones along Israel’s borders with the West Bank as a way to separate Palestinians and Israelis--a unilateral action that is not a new idea but will likely further inflame tensions.

Palestinian officials, meanwhile, announced the arrest of three suspects in the October assassination of a right-wing Israeli Cabinet minister. Israel had demanded the capture and prosecution of the Palestinian gunman and his accomplices as a condition for lifting a 3-month-old travel ban on Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat.

In what is shaping up to be the deadliest week here in 17 months of conflict, seven more Palestinians and one Israeli Arab were killed by Israeli troops Thursday; two Israeli soldiers were wounded in a Palestinian ambush.

In a bid to rally Israelis, who are increasingly despondent over the seemingly unending strife, Sharon went on national television and promised that he will “not rest” until Palestinian “terrorist organizations” are dismantled and disarmed. Sharon regards Palestinian militias as well as some regular police forces as terrorist groups.

“To those who speak about a collapse, despair and loss of hope, this is not the time to utter words of disaster,” Sharon told citizens who elected him in a landslide a year ago but who are increasingly expressing doubts about his leadership.

“The state of Israel is not collapsing,” he said. “This is the time for demonstrating the unity which is at the core of the character of the Jewish people.”

Sharon’s speech was aimed at caulking the cracks that have emerged in Israeli society in recent weeks. The right wing is demanding an all-out war on Arafat and the Palestinian Authority, while the left insists that there can be no military solution and that only negotiations and an end to Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip will halt hostilities.

Reaction to Sharon’s comments fell predictably along ideological lines. No one was satisfied, and some were alarmed.

“Great expectations, great disappointment,” proclaimed Yitzhak Levy, head of the National Religious Party, which represents the right-wing Jewish settlers who have traditionally been the bastion of Sharon’s support. “Empty drama, wasted air time. A leader in wartime is expected to present plans with depth, not preach to his nation.”

Yossi Sarid, head of the leftist opposition Meretz Party, also complained that Sharon offered no concrete ideas or vision for a way out of the crisis, and no incentives for the Palestinians.

Palestinian officials said they had hoped that Sharon would offer a diplomatic initiative, but instead he pledged more war. Nabil Shaath, a Palestinian Cabinet minister, said the buffer zones will not enhance security and will only deepen suffering.

Pointedly avoiding any mention of Arafat by name, Sharon insisted again he would refuse any dialogue with the Palestinian leader. But he did appeal directly to the Palestinian people, urging them to choose a new leadership or suffer the consequences.

“I suggest that you think long and hard about what you and your children would want to achieve in the coming years,” he said, referring to the remarkable industrial, economic and agricultural development achieved by Israel in its 53 years of existence.

“Will you continue to follow those who lead you to ruin, destruction and despair? Will you continue to be misled by those who call upon your sons to commit suicide, or will you follow those who choose to progress and to thrive?”

At his besieged West Bank headquarters in Ramallah, Arafat reiterated a Dec. 16 call for a cease-fire. Citing a long list of violated cease-fires, Israelis scoffed at his proposal. After the Dec. 16 speech, however, the region entered several of the quietest weeks since the start of the conflict in September 2000.

Sharon repeated his familiar position that he is eager to reach a truce by “talking to those Palestinians that one can talk to,” but he said he would not negotiate under fire.

Asked about the Palestinians’ arrest of suspects in the Oct. 17 slaying of right-wing Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi, Sharon said he was awaiting confirmation that the men were truly in detention. He seemed to hint, however, that the government was willing to ease restrictions on Arafat’s movements, saying the Cabinet would review the matter.

Agents of the Palestinian intelligence service rounded up the three men in a predawn raid Thursday in the West Bank city of Nablus where they had been in hiding for months, Palestinian officials said. Col. Talal Dweikat, head of intelligence in Nablus, said the arrest order came from Arafat.

The suspects belong to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a radical faction that claimed responsibility for Zeevi’s slaying. The group said Zeevi was killed in retaliation for Israel’s assassination of its leader.

One of the men arrested, Hamdi Quoran, has been identified by Israel as the shooter who confronted Zeevi, 75, in a hotel hallway and fired at him point-blank.

Israeli officials were reacting cautiously to the report of arrests, because Palestinian authorities have in the past arrested suspected killers only to free them later.

About half an hour before Sharon went on television, Israeli forces launched yet another round of punishing aerial bombardments on Palestinian targets. Missiles slammed into Arafat’s headquarters in Gaza City for the third consecutive night and destroyed a police station in the southern Gazan town of Rafah.

In violence earlier Thursday, Palestinian gunmen attacked an Israeli army checkpoint. One Palestinian leaped from a car and opened fire at close range at soldiers, who returned fire, killing the assailant as well as an Israeli Arab man. The army said it was investigating whether the second man was involved or was a passerby, as his family claimed. Two soldiers and four passersby were wounded.

At the Kalandiyeh checkpoint on the main road from Jerusalem to the West Bank city of Ramallah, Israeli soldiers and rock-throwing Palestinians skirmished on and off throughout the day. At one point, soldiers opened fire on Palestinians who were walking over a back road to skirt the closed checkpoint, the only way out of Ramallah for most residents. A 30-year-old man was shot in the eye. He later died.

Israeli helicopters fired missiles at an apartment building in Ramallah used by members of Arafat’s Force 17 presidential guard. There were no serious injuries.

The Ramallah attack occurred at almost the same moment that U.S. Consul General Ronald Schlicher was paying a call on Arafat at his Ramallah offices.

In announcing the creation of buffer zones, Sharon refused to detail how they will be set up and whether Palestinian land will be confiscated to create them. The idea is to prevent suicide bombers from entering Israel, but similar security zones in the past have not worked.

Although Sharon offered little in the way of concrete plans, analysts here said it was crucial for the prime minister to try to assuage the fears of his public and offer some explanation at a time of growing dissent.

Israel needs “courageous and visionary leadership that will know how to restore its ability to deter [Palestinian attacks], but without being dragged into a dangerous military escapade,” the daily Maariv newspaper said in an editorial Thursday. “In the absence of such leadership, it is currently difficult to see even the light at the end of the tunnel.”