Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority has now followed the Israeli government in offering its full support for the coalescing American-led international alliance against terrorism.
The US, meanwhile, has indicated that while it welcomes Israel's support, it does not envision a military role for the Jewish state in any unfolding confrontation - since this would alienate Arab states.
Asked by the Americans to choose between implicit support for terrorism or overt renunciation of it, Mr Arafat appears to be plumping for the latter. He yesterday convened foreign diplomats to emphasize the seriousness of the Intifada ceasefire call he issued on Monday in a Jewish New Year's letter to the Israeli people, and used the same meeting to reveal he had assured the Bush administration of his desire to be involved in the coalition "for ending terrorism against unarmed, innocent civilians."
In positioning himself firmly with the Americans, Mr Arafat is reversing what Palestinian leaders widely acknowledge was his mistake a decade ago, when he allied the Palestinians with Saddam Hussein.
However, his new course of action will not be immediately popular with those sections of the Palestinian public where anti-American sentiment in general, and anti-Bush administration sentiment in particular, runs high because of the perceived pro-Israeli bias of the US government. Nor will it be popular with all Islamic groupings within Palestinian society.
Leaders of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups, responsible for some 30 suicide bombings and attempted suicide bombings of Israeli targets within the past year, have made plain their sympathy for the motivation of the suicide bombers who attacked the Twin Towers and the Pentagon last week.
A group of Muslim spiritual leaders associated with Hamas has issued a ruling against joining the "blasphemous" American alliance. To side with the US in a conflict against Muslims would constitute "treason against God, the prophet Muhammad and the believers," said one of them, Sheik Hamed Bitawi, in Nablus yesterday.
The first American demand of the Palestinian Authority (PA) would likely be that it confront the extremists in its own territory. US Secretary of State Colin Powell said in an interview with Qatar's al-Jazeera satellite TV network that nations like Syria and Iran, which appear on the State Department's list of countries sponsoring terror but which have intimated readiness to now join the fight against it, "can provide assistance in the form of intelligence and removing from their land terrorist organizations." Mr Arafat's PA would presumably be required to do the same.
As for Israel's role, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said on Monday that Mr Powell was pleased for it to join the coalition. But Mr Powell has now made clear that, if military power was needed, he didn't "see Israel as playing a role in that kind of operation."