Pressure on Sharon to respond

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has called for a meeting today of the Security Cabinet to discuss the government's response to the latest wave of terror attacks.

The decision to call for the meeting marked a change in the Prime Minister's schedule, which had focused on lobbying efforts to pass the government's budget, and came after this morning's suicide bombing at Neve Yemin and the discovery of bombs in Petach Tikva and Netanya. The Prime Minister has been under growing pressure to respond to the terrorism.

President Moshe Katsav said yesterday that it was "time for the government to come up with a new strategy" to deal with the attacks. The President issued a call for separation from the Palestinians.

A number of Knesset members called on the government to take immediate action. National Religious Party chairman Yitzhak Levy demanded that Sharon immediately carry out security operations to end the "ongoing nightmare of the Jews of Hebron." Michael Kleiner of Herut also said the government should not delay its response any longer.

Defense Minister Benyamin Ben-Eliezer told Channel Two television that Israel cannot "passively accept the murder of babies and bombings in Jerusalem ... Israel's reaction will come and it will be hard."

Ben-Eliezer promised to "deal with them [the terrorists] one-by-one."

According to unnamed security sources quoted in the Israeli press, the Prime Minister has no intention of immediately reacting in a dramatic fashion. According to one source, Sharon does not want to play into Yasser Arafat's hands and escalate the situation while the Arab League conference is taking place or before Land Day on Friday.

A Maariv report today summarized the options available to the Prime Minister, stating that the question is not "if," but "when" the response would come.