The deepening Israeli-Palestinian conflict yesterday saw Israel's Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, attempting to persuade President Bush that the Palestinian Authority has turned into a terrorist organisation. Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority President, Mr Yasser Arafat, urged fellow Arab leaders to start taking practical steps against Israeli aggression.
In remarks to reporters covering his White House talks with President Bush, Mr Sharon intimated that he believes Mr Arafat is now Israel's enemy rather than its problematic peace partner, but did not make that assessment explicit.
"Everyone knows who is behind the violence," he said.
But in his meetings with US administration officials, Mr Sharon has presented evidence allegedly showing the Authority's direct orchestration of attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians.
In Jerusalem, Mr Sharon's chief-of-staff, Lieut Gen Shaul Mofaz, claimed that the Authority had been involved in the killings of "more than 40 per cent" of the 67 Israelis who have died since the intifada erupted, and added it was stockpiling as much weaponry as it could lay its hands on.
Mr Bush was determinedly circumspect, saying only that the US "will not try to force peace; it will facilitate peace". He would not be drawn on when or even whether he might invite Mr Arafat for talks, although aides suggest such a meeting might be scheduled for May.
While Mr Sharon has been in Washington - warmly received by much of the Jewish community, steering clear of protesters who have called for his arrest as a war criminal, and securing a commitment from the Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, to the maintenance of Israel's "qualitative military edge" over its Arab neighbours - Mr Arafat has been touring Arab capitals, seeking promises of financial and diplomatic assistance before next week's Arab Summit in Amman.
In Qatar yesterday, Mr Arafat accused Israel of "brutal aggression on the Palestinian people" - more than 350 of whom have been killed since last September - and urged the Arab world to make decisions that would "confront" that aggression, a presumed reference to his desire, among other measures, for a reinstitution of the Arab trade boycott of Israel and the downgrading of Egyptian and Jordanian ties to Israel.
In Gaza, Authority officials angrily rejected Israeli charges that Mr Arafat's Force 17 Presidential Guard has been involved in recent shooting and shelling incidents. The officials also rejected Mr Sharon's peace blueprint - "interim agreements" that would see the Palestinians declaring statehood on some 50 per cent of the West Bank, with the issues that have proved most problematic in the past, including the status of Jerusalem and the fate of refugees, left aside.
The Authority Information Minister, Mr Yasser Abed Rabbo, described this as a recipe for continued Israeli occupation and an effort to evade previously signed accords.
The Israeli Foreign Minister, Mr Shimon Peres, appeared to agree when he declared that Israel had to honour previous agreements. But those agreements commit Israel only to ambiguous further West Bank withdrawals.
In essence Mr Peres, who spent yesterday morning on the phone to Arab leaders urging them to press Mr Arafat to help stop the violence, has indicated that he shares Mr Sharon's assessment that, for now, there is no prospect of achieving a comprehensive accord.
Aides to Mr Sharon, meanwhile, have denied reports that the Prime Minister might weigh the dismantling of some Jewish settlements in Gaza if intifada violence dies down. In the territories yesterday, an Israeli civilian shot a Palestinian 13-yearold in the back, and an Israeli motorist was shot in the foot.