December 23, 2001	Sunday	Shawwal 7, 1422

AL QUDS: Yasser Arafat hopes Washington will ease pressure on the Palestinians and bring it to bear on Israel instead following a decision by Hamas fighters to halt suicide attacks in the Jewish state, political analysts said. But the embattled Palestinian president’s strategy of leaning on fighters to obey his ceasefire orders could easily backfire if other radical groups continue defying him and Israel keeps up efforts to undermine his authority, experts said.

Arafat’s difficulties were underlined by clashes between hardline Palestinian fighters and Palestinian police on Friday in the worst fighting between Palestinians since Arafat’s Palestinian Authority was formed in 1994 under interim peace accords.

“Arafat is performing a very delicate balancing act, both internationally and domestically and there are a number of things that could trip him up,” Israeli political analyst Mark Heller said.

It took weeks of US diplomatic prodding and Israeli military strikes to push Arafat into taking tough action against Hamas and other groups behind a series of suicide attacks which have killed 29 people inside Israel in the past month.

Facing a crackdown ordered by Arafat, Hamas, the main group behind recent violence, said on Friday it was stopping attacks inside Israel “until further notice”. The decision followed intensive negotiations with Arafat’s Palestinian Authority. The Hamas decision offered hope for at least reducing the level of violence in a conflict which has raged for nearly 15 months and killed more 1,000 people.

But analysts cautioned it was too early to tell whether it would bring real progress toward ending the bloodshed.

Islamic Jihad vowed to continue its assaults despite the Hamas declaration. Israel, which recently branded Arafat “irrelevant”, dismissed the Hamas decision as a tactical move designed to delay the clampdown demanded by world leaders.

Arafat has been under intense pressure from the United States, which put much of the onus on the Palestinian leader for the failure of a recent mediation mission undertaken by US envoy Anthony Zinni.

Arafat called on Sunday for an end to all armed attacks on Israelis, but Hamas and other hardline groups dedicated to Israel’s destruction vowed to defy him. He responded with stepped-up arrests, touching off fighting between police and hardline supporters, and sent Palestinian Authority officials to negotiate an agreement with Hamas to end suicide attacks on Israel.

Analysts said that Arafat put the squeeze on Hamas to send a message to Washington, the region’s traditional peace broker, that he was applying the “100 per cent effort” it has repeatedly demanded to deal with the fighters.

Palestinian political analyst Ghassan al-Khatib said that Arafat now hoped the United States will exert heavy pressure on Israel to respond by withdrawing troops from Palestinian-ruled areas, halting air strikes and stopping the killings of fighters. “If these things cannot be achieved there will be little reason to believe this will be a lasting ceasefire,” he said. “There will be nothing to stop Hamas from resuming its attacks.”

Hamas has made clear it still reserves the right to retaliate for what it calls “Israeli crimes”. Despite the Israeli government’s dismissal of the Hamas announcement, Heller said Israeli officials would be watching closely to see whether militants abide by the limited ceasefire.

While promising an end to suicide attacks inside the borders of Israel, the Hamas statement appeared to leave open the possibility it would continue targeting soldiers and settlers in the West Bank and Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has repeatedly demanded seven days of calm as a condition for going ahead with a US-brokered truce-to-talks plan.

“Let’s say this is followed by a period of relative quiet,” Heller said. “In that case, Arafat will be able to make a defensible argument to the Americans that he has done his part and Israel would have a hard time refuting that.” But Arafat is facing a crucial test not only of whether he can regain his international standing and credibility but whether he can quell internal violence.

Friday’s Hamas announcement seemed designed to douse clashes between Palestinian police and fighters angered by the arrest of their leaders. Palestinian fighters command strong grass-roots support, and polls have shown a clear majority of Palestinians approve of suicide bombings in the fight to end Israeli occupation.

As a result, analysts say Arafat is under fierce public pressure to show some kind of political gain if he is to bring to an end a Palestinian uprising which erupted in September 2000.—Reuters