Israeli Police On Crisis Footing
Two of the three Israeli victims of a weekend suicide bomb attack were buried Monday, as Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon prepared to take office with a mandate from Israel's people to put a stop to five months of unrest.
Already on alert, Israeli police have gone on emergency footing, canceling courses and putting more officers on the streets while asking the military for reinforcements to help stop a wave of bombings in Israeli cities.
A Palestinian Sunday killed himself and three Israelis in a suicide bombing in the coastal resort city of Netanya. The Palestinian militant group Hamas is threatening to unleash suicide bombers when Sharon takes office and says that it has 10 bombers ready to dispatch.
Meanwhile, thousands attended the funeral of a Palestinian gunman, Osama Naghnaghia, 21, who was shot dead Sunday night in a battle with Israeli soldiers near the West Bank town of Jenin.
Five months of fighting has claimed 423 lives, including 347 Palestinians, 57 Israeli Jews and 19 others.
Sharon, elected in a landslide Feb. 6, has demanded that all violence stop before peace talks resume. However, he has not outlined what measures he would take to end the clashes, triggered by his visit to a disputed holy site in Jerusalem on Sept. 28.
Sharon secured a solid parliamentary majority for his government Monday, when a small party representing immigrants from the former Soviet Union signed on.
The agreement with the Israel B'Aliya party meant Sharon would have a government of at least 68 members of the 120-seat parliament, or Knesset. The party leader, former Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky, will become housing and construction minister, said a negotiator for the party, David Shechter.
Sharon plans to present his broad-based "national unity" government to the parliament for approval Wednesday. If it passes a vote of confidence, he assumes the premiership.
First on Sharon's agenda is combating the violence. He has charged that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is responsible for attacks by failing to rein in militants and preaching hatred of Israel. Israeli-Palestinian security cooperation, a key to foiling bombing attacks, evaporated with the outbreak of violence.
Israel has closed off the West Bank and Gaza Strip in an attempt to keep Palestinian militants from entering Israel. Though the bombings show that goal has not been fully achieved, the closure has devastated the Palestinian economy, keeping about 120,000 Palestinians from reaching their jobs inside Israel.
Secretary of State Colin Powell, who meets with European Union ministers on Tuesday, is backing an EU call for an emergency donors' conference to stave off economic collapse in the Palestinian Authority.
While the Gaza Strip is surrounded by a high fence, Israeli officials say it is impossible to completely seal off the West Bank, where hundreds of unpaved roads allow Palestinians to easily bypass Israeli checkpoints. According to the dailYediot Ahronot , up to 20,000 Palestinians illegally cross into Israel from the West Bank every day.
Incoming foreign minister Shimon Peres took to the airwaves in Jerusalem Monday to talk about the crisis.
Peres, a Nobel peace prize winner, says the Jews and the Palestinians are locked in a conflict that can only be resolved through negotiations.
"They are a bone in our throat and we are a bone in theirs," said Peres, on Israel Radio, calling for new moves to restore security cooperation with the Palestinians and "help them out of their situation of hunger, unemployment and hate."
Sharon has said Israel will not resume peace efforts with the Palestinians until they stop the uprising.
But Peres said: "I don't believe that Sharon and his government are interested in living with terror, rage, hate and blood. We all have to find a solution."
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