Sharon, so far, resists all-out war
85 Palestinians and Israelis have been killed in the past week of Mideast violence.
In word and deed, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is fighting harder against the Palestinians, but without adopting the strategy of all-out war that some of his supporters advocate.
It would be hard to convince many Palestinians that the Israeli leader is showing much restraint, but it bears remembering what he is not doing: mounting a wholesale invasion of Palestinian territories, dismantling the Palestinian Authority, or depriving the Palestinian population en masse of food, water, or fuel.
Mr. Sharon seems determined to try to finesse the internal divisions of his coalition government, partly to keep alive the impression of Israeli unity and partly to ensure his political future.
Alongside these political calculations, the conflict is reaching grave proportions. More than 85 people have been killed in the past week. Combatants and civilians, including children, have died on both sides. "What is clear," says Rene Kosirnik, the director of International Committee of the Red Cross operations in Is- rael and the Palestinian territories, "is that the violence, the tension, the military means, the security measures are ... increasing rather than decreasing."
Palestinian militants, inflamed by Israel's incursion into two West Bank refugee camps late last week, mounted several deadly attacks against Israelis on Saturday and Sunday, prompting Sharon to ratchet up his rhetoric and his tactics.
"Now they have to be hit," Sharon told reporters Monday, referring to the Palestinians. "If they aren't badly beaten, there won't be any negotiations." He also told the Israeli parliament: "It's us or them. Our backs are to the wall, but all is not lost. We will win, but this is war, and it will take a long time."
The same day Sharon's government approved "continuous" operations against Palestinians, yielding a series of air strikes, raids, and incursions that killed at least 16 Palestinians. In one instance, the Israel Defense Forces expressed regret for the killing of six civilians in the West Bank city of Ramallah, explaining that the Israeli tank in question was targeting a pair of Palestinian policemen and missed. Early Tuesday, a Palestinian gunman killed three people at a late-night restaurant in Tel Aviv, Palestinian attackers shot dead an Israeli woman driving in the West Bank, and a Palestinian suicide bomber killed himself and an Israeli in the city of Afula.
Also Tuesday, a bomb exploded at a Palestinian elementary school in East Jerusalem, lightly injuring eight children and an adult. A group calling itself "The Avengers of the Infants" claimed responsibility for the blast.
Sharon met with selected cabinet ministers for much of Tuesday, but analysts say the prime minister is not engineering any radical shifts of policy and strategy. "I don't think he's decisively done anything," says strategic analyst Mark Heller.
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