Defying American pressure and infuriating the Palestinian leadership, Israel's Prime Minister Mr Ariel Sharon yesterday cancelled a much anticipated meeting between his Foreign Minister, Mr Shimon Peres, and the Palestinian Authority President, Mr Yasser Arafat.
The American Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, called Mr Peres last night to repeat that the US greatly wanted the meeting to go ahead. Mr Peres, who hardly needed reminding of that fact, is now threatening to resign his post unless the meeting is approved.
President Bush had been urging Mr Sharon to sanction the meeting, which was intended to formalise a fragile ceasefire that has held since the middle of last week and to pave the way for an eventual resumption of peace negotiations.
Critically, the Americans said they regarded the meeting as an opportunity to start rebuilding Israeli-Palestinian relations, and thus help broaden support in the Arab world for the coalition against terrorism.
But Mr Sharon began a cabinet meeting yesterday morning by announcing that the meeting - which was to have taken place last night at Gaza Airport - could not be held for the time being because Mr Arafat had failed to meet a precondition: 48 hours without Palestinian attacks on Israeli targets. Specifically, Mr Sharon cited mortar fire on an Israeli settlement in Gaza on Saturday, and the fact that Mr Arafat's security forces had summoned for questioning Mr Atef Abidat, a Bethlehem resident whom Israel alleges shot dead an Israeli woman in the West Bank last week, but then released him. Some Palestinian sources said last night that Mr Abidat was still in custody.
Mr Sharon reportedly told his ministerial colleagues that it was "inconceivable" for Mr Peres to meet Mr Arafat in such a climate. Acknowledging that the cancellation would anger the Bush Administration, Mr Shlomo Benizri, a minister from the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, invoked the comparison Mr Sharon has been making recently between Mr Arafat and Osama bin Laden, stating: "Like they \the Americans aren't going to go and talk to their bin Laden, so we shouldn't have to go and talk to our bin Laden."
Mr Yasser Abed Rabbo, the Palestinian Information Minister, accused the Sharon government of behaving like "a gang, not a responsible government of a state". Palestinian sources say that "90 per cent" of the intifada violence has now been reined in; the Hamas leadership has also indicated a willingness to "suspend" suicide bombings.
Mr Peres, who heard by radio that the meeting was off, boycotted the cabinet session, muttered to his Labour colleagues about being made "a laughing stock" by Mr Sharon, and threatened to resign. Labour leaders are to meet Mr Sharon today, but a serious coalition crisis seems unlikely - especially since, officially at least, Mr Sharon says the talks can still take place if the required 48 hours of quiet are achieved. The real crisis, indeed, could come in Israeli-American ties. US ambassador Mr Dan Kurtzer had urged that the meeting go ahead to remove what he reportedly called a "thorn in the side" of Israeli-US relations, and to enable the completion of arrangements for bilateral cooperation.