By
The Associated Press
JERUSALEM - Israel yesterday pressed its ultimatum to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat: order an end to the violence within a day or the peace talks are over - and what's more, Palestinian commanders could become targets.
Israelis settled down to fast through Yom Kippur wondering whether their Day of Atonement, which ends at sundown today, would carry echoes of the same terrifying day 27 years ago when a surprise Arab attack launched a devastating war. The United States stepped up its efforts to get the sides talking again.
The days of rage that have consumed Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip since Sept. 28 have spread elsewhere: Israel was building up its forces on its northern border after Lebanese guerrillas seized three Israeli soldiers, shattering the calm that has prevailed there since Israel withdrew from Lebanon in May.
The Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia dedicated Saturday's operation to the Palestinians who have died in the recent clashes. The fighting has claimed 82 lives so far, most Palestinian.
Touring the northern border, Prime Minister Ehud Barak had a simple message for the Palestinians, for the Lebanese, and for the Syrians who are the real power in Lebanon: It's up to you to stop this from escalating.
"Syria has supreme responsibility to ensure that there will not be hostile actions against Israel from Lebanon," Barak said.
To Arafat, he repeated the ultimatum he delivered Saturday night: end the violence by this evening, when Yom Kippur ends.
"If we will not see the difference actively implemented on the ground, and a calming down of the situation really occurring, we will draw the conclusion that Arafat deliberately has decided to abandon the negotiations," Barak said.
He did not specify what Israel would do, but one of his top military aides said Israel would move from a defensive to an offensive posture, and could target Palestinian commanders.
"We could ... as far as I am concerned, even attack the headquarters of those responsible for the situation," Maj. Gen. Uzi Dayan, Barak's national security adviser, told Israel radio. Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh said Israel had barely used "1 percent" of its force in dealing with the Palestinians.
The Palestinians said it was up to the Israelis to stop the shooting, and laid down their own condition: accept a U.N. Security Council call for an international commission to investigate the violence.
"Get out and stop firing," Nabil Shaath, a top aide to Arafat, advised the Israelis. "When this is done, an international committee can start really finding the facts and then we can move on to instigate business and negotiations."
Israelis - even the most dovish among them - rejected the Security Council statement, saying it resurrected the organization's bias against the Jewish state.
"It happened that we survived the harsh language of the U.N. many times in the past," said Avraham Burg, the speaker of the Israeli parliament. "If they want to continue with their rhetoric, it's beautiful, it's no problem, but at some point it will become irrelevant."
In truth, Israelis were sorely disappointed that the United States did not vote rather than using its veto to quash the statement.
The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Richard Holbrooke, said the United States abstained with "clear distaste," but that it had little choice if it wanted to influence all sides, citing "great dangers that exist in the region of the Middle East today."
The anger has spread through much of the Arab world, with protesters in Iraq, Syria, Egypt and Jordan focusing their fury on the act that set off the rioting in Jerusalem: a visit by hard-line opposition leader Ariel Sharon to a shrine holy to Muslims and Jews.
President Clinton scrambled to prevent the crisis from escalating into war, canceling other engagements and calling Barak and Arafat throughout the day. Barak's Cabinet secretary, Yitzhak Herzog, said Clinton had invited the sides to a summit tomorrow. U.S. officials said they knew of no such invitation.
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said both sides had a responsibility to end the violence. She told NBC's "Meet the Press" she understands Barak's "incredible sense of frustration" but added: "We need to try to break the violence. That just hasn't happened. ... There has to be disengagement."
In one conciliatory sign, senior Israeli and Palestinian officers met under U.S. auspices in the Gaza Strip and agreed to coordinate security issues - restoring a degree of the cooperation that existed before the violence began.
Israeli Maj. Gen. Yom Tov Samia told Abdel Razek Majaida, a Gaza security chief, that he expected an immediate stop to the shooting. Majaida was noncommittal, saying he wanted to see a "total Israeli cease-fire" first.
Hours later, stone-throwers besieged an Israeli army outpost near the isolated Jewish settlement of Netzarim in Gaza, while Majaida's Palestinian police looked on - but for the first time in days, no Palestinian gunmen were present.
Such agreements have dissolved within hours in the past week, but this one appeared to be holding into the evening, with minor clashes reported only in a Jerusalem suburb and in Bethlehem.
Still, the warlike rhetoric refused to subside.
Barak planned another Cabinet meeting as soon as Yom Kippur ended, and was reportedly consulting with hard-liners about establishing an emergency government. Arafat invited peace talks opponents to his Cabinet meeting last night.
Israel also moved heavy armaments up to the border with Lebanon and closed some highways in the north.
Sneh, the deputy defense minister, said Israel was prepared to fight on "both fronts," a claim Syria dismissed.
"Such language has not intimidated either Syria or Lebanon (in the past) and is frivolous in the present," said the Al-Baath newspaper, mouthpiece of the ruling Baath party.
