"We are with you in your insistence that the Palestinian Authority fulfill the responsibilities and obligations it has undertaken," she said upon her arrival in Tel Aviv. "Militarily, we have cooperated in many areas, including early warning and missile defense, and the United States remains absolutely committed to helping Israel maintain its qualitative military edge."

As Albright prepared her regional tour of the Middle East, an Israeli embassy spokesman announced September 2 in Ankara, Turkey, that Washington has scheduled joint naval maneuvers with its navy along with Israeli and Turkish military forces in the Mediterranean Sea November 15-25.

Albright launched her mission to squeeze Palestinian Authority president Yasir Arafat and the Palestinian leadership to crack down on resistance by the Palestinian masses, including the Hamas organization. In the aftermath of a triple suicide bomb attack by Palestinian fighters, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave several interviews with U.S. television reporters urging Albright to press the Palestinian leadership to crack down on militants.

On September 4 three Palestinians detonated bombs in a Jerusalem shopping center killing themselves and four others, and wounding more than 190 people. The Palestinian organization Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack. It also warned of more explosions unless all Palestinian prisoners incarcerated by Tel Aviv were released by September 14. The bombing had been preceded by another suicide blast by two Palestinians on July 30 that killed 15 Israelis.

Under stepped up pressure from Washington, the Palestinian police rounded up some 200 members of Hamas September 9 - on the eve of Albright's arrival. The leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) also began posturing with a measure of militancy, warning it was prepared to launch a policy of "confrontation" in a statement published in the Jerusalem Times, a Palestinian newspaper. They declared their refusal to bow to Israeli dictates of "100 percent security" measures, asserting that the PLO would become an "army of collaborators" and fuel a civil war among Palestinian people if they obeyed these Zionist demands.

"Arafat can throw the Islamists in jail and even torture them, but what will he get in return?" asked Abdul Abu Heir, a Palestinian shop owner in Jerusalem. "A crackdown will cause a civil war here."

The current crisis stems from Tel Aviv's failure to implement more than 30 commitments stipulated in the Israeli- PLO accords negotiated in Oslo, Norway, in 1993. In March Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved the construction of Zionist settlements in east Jerusalem, which ignited confrontations and led the Palestinian leadership to suspend all formal contacts with Tel Aviv.

Three days before the latest suicide attack, the Israeli regime had announced it had no plans to pull Israeli troops from the West Bank. Palestinians control less than 10 percent of the West Bank, while being surrounded by a 100,000-strong Israeli military occupation force. According to the 1995 Oslo Interim Agreement, a second redeployment of Zionist troops was scheduled for September 7. The first withdrawal occurred in March, when the Israeli regime returned only 2 percent of the land to full Palestinian control.

Meanwhile, economic hardships for the Palestinian masses has increased with unemployment reaching more than 40 percent in some towns as a result of border restrictions imposed by Tel Aviv. The Israeli government has also withheld some $45 million in monthly revenue owed to the Palestinian Authority, which include income tax, value-added tax, customs duties and excise taxes. The Zionist regime imposed these measures after the July 30 suicide bombing, in addition to demolishing more than two dozen Palestinian homes.

"They destroy people's houses, take land, prevent people from working," said a Palestinian shop owner referring to these policies. "Pressure leads to an explosion."

Netanyahu regime in permanent crisis
The Netanyahu government has been engulfed in one crisis after another. Nurit Peled-Eichanan, whose daughter was killed in September 4 bombing, blamed the Netanyahu government saying, "They sacrifice our children for their megalomania - for their need to control, oppress, dominate." Peled-Eichanan is the daughter of former Zionist military commander Maj. Gen. Motti Peled.

Most recently, a debate has broken out among the Israeli rulers over their occupation of southern Lebanon, fueled by the killing of 12 Israeli soldiers from an elite commando unit during a botched raid there September 5. This unit was responsible for assassinating Palestinian leaders in Beirut in 1973. The bungled operation was preceded by another military fiasco in Lebanon, when four Israeli soldiers were burned to death August 28. They died from a fire that was ignited by artillery shells from their own forces during a gun battle with Hezbollah guerrillas.

"What happened was a grave defeat for Israel and a major moral and human loss for Israel's military establishment," said Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nazrallah, at a September 5 news conference in Beirut.

"These are the worst losses in combat Israel has suffered since 1985," reported the September 6 Financial Times. Four of Netanyahu's cabinet members - including Infrastructures Minister Ariel Sharon -publicly called for withdrawing troops from Lebanon. Sharon was the Israeli defense minister who led the 1982 invasion of Lebanon. In a September 7 interview with Yedioth Aharonoth, an Israeli newspaper, the rightist politician said, "Lebanon has become a real burden to Israel."  
 
 
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