After returning from talks with U.S. President George W. Bush, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will convene Israel's security cabinet to discuss military responses to Sunday's wave of terror attacks, in which 26 Israelis were killed and more than 200 injured. The cabinet is reportedly split over a proposal to topple Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Authority.

Sharon convened an emergency briefing with security officials immediately upon his arrival Monday morning at Ben Gurion International Airport. Foreign Affairs Minister Shimon Peres, Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, Interior Minister Eli Yishai and Science, Culture and Sport Minister Matan Vilnai were in attendance at the meeting.

Sharon is to address the nation on Israeli television

"There is no alternative to switching the Palestinian Authority regime" - Minister Avigdor Lieberman

Monday evening at 7:30 p.m., followed by a meeting of the full security cabinet. The cabinet is reportedly evenly split between ministers calling to topple Arafat and the Palestinian Authority, and those favoring severe military actions stopping short of replacing the Palestinian leadership.

National Infrastructure Minister Avigdor Lieberman said yesterday that if Sharon did not issue orders to the IDF to expel Arafat, his National Union-Yisrael Beiteinu party would no longer support the national unity government. "There is no alternative to switching the Palestinian Authority regime, just as the U.S. took measures to switch the government in Afghanistan," he said.

Finance Minister Silvan Shalom has been the most open-spoken Likud minister calling to move personally against Arafat. "I came to the conclusion that we should expel Arafat when it became clear that more terror attacks were being perpetrated by his security apparatus than any other organization," Shalom said.

"The government must adopt a strategic decision to topple the Palestinian regime of terror," added Education Minister Limor Livnat (Likud).

Labor Party ministers were hesitant about moves against Arafat. "Arafat will be judged according to his actions, not his declarations,'' Peres said, but sources in his office said he was unwilling to declare the PA as an enemy.

"It must be understood that we are at a turning point," Vilnai said yesterday. He warned that the Palestinian Authority was "endangering its existence'' by not cracking down on militants. Labor sources said the party would leave the government if it decided to topple the Palestinian Authority, Yediot Aharonot reported.

MK Zeev Boim (Likud) said, "Israel must smash the PA, even at the expense of the national-unity government."

Cabinet member Dan Meridor (Center Party) was skeptical about replacing Arafat. "There's no question that the steps that need to be taken must be significantly different, such that this will not continue. But this does not mean that any one step, like getting rid of Arafat, will solve the problem," he said.

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