Israel's top intelligence officer is said to have warned Mr Yasser Arafat that senior members of his Palestinian police force may be trying to undermine his rule and even topple him altogether, writes David Horovitz from Jerusalem.
The warning was reportedly delivered by Mr Ami Ayalon, the head of Israel's Shin Bet intelligence service, during a secret meeting he held with Mr Arafat in Gaza on Wednesday night. Mr Ayalon is understood to have indicated to the Palestinian Authority President that his life could be in danger.
According to sketchy reports of the meeting, Mr Ayalon's assessment is based on the interrogation of three Palestinian policemen, arrested by Israeli troops on Monday. Israel claims the trio were planning to carry out an attack against Jewish settlers in the Nablus area of the West Bank. Mr Arafat yesterday announced that he was setting up an inquiry.
Mr Ayalon is said to have told Mr Arafat that the men were following orders from one or more extremely senior Palestinian police chiefs. Palestinian officials have denied that the most senior official named by Israel as having authorised attacks on Jewish settlers, Palestinian police commander Gen Razi Jabali, has given any such authorisation.
Belatedly reacting to the current peace deadlock, the United States is now said to be finalising a new initiative, centred on an accelerated push towards a permanent peace treaty. This could see the State Department envoy, Mr Dennis Ross, flying to the region in two or three weeks' time.
In further indications that both sides are concerned by the worsening mood on the ground, there have been a flurry of little-publicised meetings between Israeli and Palestinian officials in recent days and the Israeli Foreign Minister, Mr David Levy, may meet Mr Arafat at a EU foreign ministers' meeting in Brussels next week.
David Horovitz is managing editor of the Jerusalem Report