Attempts by the PNA to abide by these dictates have only increased the volatility of many areas in the West Bank and Gaza, where heavily armed Israeli forces confront and blockade Palestinian working people and youth.

Faced with an increasingly uncertain future, the Israeli rulers are beset by divisions. Declining support for his government has forced Barak to call new elections for next year.  
 
Missile attacks on Palestinian offices
On November 20 IDF helicopter gunships attacked targets in the Gaza Strip for several hours, firing missiles at the headquarters of the Palestinian police and intelligence agencies, as well as the personal security force of PNA chairman Yasir Arafat. Tel Aviv declared that it ordered the barrage in retaliation for the alleged involvement of the Palestinian "military establishment" in the previous day's bombing of a school bus traveling from a Zionist settlement in Gaza. Two people died in that incident.

Three days later, Israeli army officers ordered Palestinian police to vacate "liaison" offices they had shared in Gaza, after an explosion in one office killed an Israeli officer. Like the November 20 bombardment and earlier assassinations of prominent Palestinian figures, the eviction was a demonstrative act designed to intimidate and pressure the Palestinian leadership. On November 26 Israeli military officers met Palestinian representatives "to try to renew cooperation," reported the Times.  
 
Palestinian Authority's umbilical cord
The Palestinian National Authority structure, established through the U.S.-supervised Oslo and Wye River Israeli-PLO negotiations during the 1990s, is tied by an umbilical cord to the Israeli state. The several different organizations that make up the Palestinian security forces were established with the cooperation of the Israeli secret police and the CIA.

The usefulness of this structure to Tel Aviv, however, is undermined by the refusal of Palestinian workers and farmers to submit meekly before Israeli power. Their resistance continues to be generated by the denial of the Palestinians' right to a real homeland. The areas allotted to the PNA under the treaties are scattered, largely impoverished, and hemmed in by armed Zionist settlements and IDF units.

In the recent unrest the Palestinian cops have on occasion traded fire with attacking Israeli troops. They have mostly directed their activity at Palestinians, however, including those engaged in protests against Israeli occupation.

The Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group stated in March that 250 political prisoners were being held in Palestinian jails. Some 200 had been held for more than a year without trial.

The PNA's measures against political opposition have led to growing anger among Palestinians. So have the privileges enjoyed by top PNA figures and their associates--privileges that stand in contrast to the miserable living conditions of working people in the occupied territories.

On November 17 Arafat stated, "We are exerting every effort to prevent any element from firing from Area A. Orders have been issued regarding this by the Palestinian Security Council." Under the Wye River Accords, the small areas under the PNA's security control, amounting to some 10 percent of the West Bank and 60 percent of Gaza, are designated "A." Areas B and C are patrolled by Israeli forces.

The statement represented the most public attempt to date by the Palestinian leader to clamp down on shooting by official PNA security forces, and especially by the Tanzim militia associated with Fatah, whose cadres have frequently been involved in exchanges of fire with Israeli forces. While the decree had some effect, protests, including some that involve the militia, have continued in many locations.  
 
Barak accepts early election
"Shaken by two months of violent conflict with Palestinians, [Barak] yielded Tuesday to demands by the hard-line opposition and said he was ready for early elections...two years ahead of schedule," reported Associated Press journalist Mark Lavie from Jerusalem November 28. Representatives of the Knesset parties have begun talks to set the date.

Barak's government has been under constant attack by its opponents, especially Ariel Sharon of the Likud Party. Sharon, whose September 28 visit to a Muslim holy site in Jerusalem accompanied by 1,000 police precipitated the latest conflict, condemns Barak for allegedly offering concessions to the Palestinian leadership in previous negotiations.

"Arafat is no partner. Arafat is a brutal enemy,'' Sharon aggressively declared at a November 22 rally in Jerusalem organized under the theme of "Let the Israeli army win."

During the November 20 missile attack on PNA targets, Sharon called on Barak to order the "liquidation" of Palestinian security head Mohammad Dahlan.  
 
U.S.-sponsored 'commission of inquiry'
Meanwhile, Washington has sponsored a "commission of inquiry" into the unrest. Tel Aviv "softened its objections" and agreed to cooperate with the commission after a November 22 meeting between U.S. defense secretary William Cohen and Barak, according to the Israeli daily Ha'aretz. The body is made up of former U.S. senators George Mitchell and Warren Rudman, former president Suleiman Demirel of Turkey, Norwegian foreign minister Thorbojrn Jagland, and European Union representative Javier Solana.

The commission is a bone thrown by Washington to the Palestinians, part of U.S. efforts to gain PLO collaboration in coming to some kind of agreement. The U.S. rulers want to sponsor new "peace talks" because they are concerned that Tel Aviv's heavy-handed military response is a growing obstacle to attaining their shared objective of weakening and eventually defeating the Palestinian national struggle.

The U.S. rulers are also nervous about the implications throughout the Middle East of Tel Aviv's brazen brutality and the refusal of Palestinians in the occupied territories to bow down before it. On a tour of the Middle East, U.S. defense secretary Cohen said November 18 that if the unrest "gets out of control, it will not be confined to Israel."

In another sign of friction between the two governments, the Clinton administration criticized the Israeli army's "excessive use of force" in its November 20 bombardment of the Gaza Strip.  
 
Tensions in the region
On November 21 the Egyptian government withdrew its ambassador from Tel Aviv--only the second time it has done so in 21 years--in protest of the Israeli assault the previous day. Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak has played a prominent role in various negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian representatives. Five days later Mubarak met for new consultations with Danny Yatom, a prominent advisor to Barak, where he reported on previous talks with Arafat.

The same day Israeli warplanes struck across the northern border with Lebanon after a bomb attack that killed an Israeli soldier. IDF tanks also shelled positions in Lebanon allegedly held by Hezbollah guerrillas, who are fighting to reclaim border territory known as Shabaa Farms.  
 
 
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