U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell arrives in Israel tonight and will press for immediate implementation of a cease-fire and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Palestinian-controlled territories. Powell is expected to try to persuade Israeli and Palestinian leaders to accept American observers to enforce a truce. Based on the recommendations of a recent report prepared by senior defense officials, Israel's cabinet may be open to this idea.

Powell will meet with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon Friday morning, and with Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat on Saturday, a visit Sharon termed a "tragic mistake." Powell will deliver in person U.S. President George W. Bush's demand for Israel's "withdrawal without delay" from Palestinian cities, and in particular from Ramallah, where the IDF has positioned forces surrounding Arafat's presidential compound. The secretary is also expected to deliver a strong call to Arafat to accept American-mediated proposals for a cease-fire.

"The responsibility is not Israel's alone," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said yesterday. "All parties have responsibilities in the war on terrorism." Fleischer called on "the Palestinian Authority and the Arab nations… to step up to their responsibilities to denounce terrorism, to disrupt terrorist financing and to stop the incitement to violence by state-owned media."

Sharon is expected to tell Powell that Israelis forces will only withdraw from Palestinian territories when their counter-terrorist operations are completed. "If we leave, we will have to return. Once we finish, we are not going to stay here. But first we have to accomplish our mission," Sharon said yesterday, while speaking with Israeli troops near Jenin.

Overnight, the IDF withdrew from 24 Palestinian villages but launched new operations in additional villages, including Bir Zeit. The army remains in Jenin, Nablus, Ramallah and Bethlehem.

After meeting with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and European Union officials in Spain, Powell issued a joint statement with them calling for an "immediate meaningful cease-fire" according to a plan presented by U.S. special envoy Anthony Zinni, a withdrawal of IDF troops from Palestinian towns, the declaration of a Palestinian state and the "immediate" start of peace talks.

On his peace mission in the region, Powell will attempt to persuade Sharon and Arafat to accept American observers to monitor the truce between Israel and the Palestinians. Sharon said a few weeks ago that he would not object to the positioning of American observers as peacekeepers and the Palestinians have also agreed in principle to the idea, though they have demanded that the observers be part of a multinational peacekeeping force.

IDF report calls on cabinet to accept multinational observer force
Senior defense officials have prepared a report suggesting that Israel's government reconsider its opposition to the stationing of a multinational observer force in the Palestinian territories, Army Radio reported today.

The deployment of the foreign observers would begin following the withdrawal of IDF troops. The observers would help prevent terror attacks on Israeli targets, and would help rehabilitate the Palestinian security forces, whose effectiveness was seriously compromised by Israel's military offensive, the report said.

Cabinet secretary Gideon Sa'ar today told Army Radio in response that the government objects to international forces in the territories. "The prime minister gave a positive answer when the issue was a relatively small number of American observers, for deployment in Rafiah," he said.

American officials believe that Sharon will agree to the posting of observers in the territories, on condition that they are American and their numbers are small, Maariv reported.

Ha'aretz reported that the American observer force would consist of some 20 Pentagon and CIA officials. The Palestinians are demanding that the force monitor IDF roadblocks, while Israel is insisting that they oversee Palestinian actions against terrorism, as well as supervising Palestinian jails, from where terrorists are often freed as part of a "revolving door" policy, the paper said.

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