Global Policy Forum

By Suzanne Goldenberg

An embryonic US peace initiative for the Middle East was shattered yesterday as Palestinian militants assassinated an Israeli cabinet minister seen as an icon of the far right.

After a year of bloodshed, the assassination of Rehavam Zeevi, 75, who was shot dead in a hotel in Arab east Jerusalem, arrived as a cataclysmic shock. Leaders across the political spectrum likened the killing - the first of a senior Israeli politician by a Palestinian militant since the Jewish state was created - to the attacks on the US.

"The situation is different today and will not again be like it was yesterday," the prime minister, Ariel Sharon, told his security cabinet yesterday. The immediate casualty of Zeevi's assassination could well be the new peace initiative for the Middle East being promoted by the US and Britain. Zeevi, who called for the expulsion of 3m Arabs from the West Bank and Gaza, died 48 hours after a visit to 10 Downing Street by the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat.

He died from two gunshot wounds in the head and the throat, fired by at least one gunman as he returned to his eighth-floor room at the Hyatt hotel after breakfast.

The assassination was claimed by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a Marxist group that has been threatening to kill Israeli politicians since August, when its leader, Abu Ali Mustafa, was killed by two Israeli guided missiles in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Yesterday Tony Blair joined world leaders in condemning the assassination, and pleaded with Israel to show restraint.

"The murder this morning is absolutely appalling and it just refocuses the need to get the peace process moving again," a spokesman for Mr Blair said.

The day gave way to feverish diplomatic exchanges with telephone calls to Mr Sharon and Mr Arafat from the White House, the secretary of state, Colin Powell, and UN officials.

The White House spokesman Ari Fleischer condemned the killing as a "despicable act". By midnight, Mr Arafat was facing concerted pressure to take stern action against Zeevi's assassins from Mr Powell as well as Mr Sharon.

In Israel's view, Mr Arafat is directly responsible for Zeevi's killing because of his failure to arrest more than 100 wanted militants as he is compelled to do under the ceasefire.

Early today, Israel's security cabinet demanded the immediate extradition of his killers, and a ban on militant groups such as the PFLP and the radical Islamist organisation, Hamas, who oppose the ceasefire.

Otherwise, a cabinet statement warned, Israel would view the Palestinian Authority "as an entity supporting and sponsoring terror, and act accordingly".

As an early indication of the scale of its wrath, Israel banned Mr Arafat from using the Gaza airport - his main conduit to the outside world - and announced it was freezing all contacts with his Palestinian Authority. It also reimposed road blocks on Palestinian areas that were lifted earlier this week when it seemed the ceasefire was beginning to take hold.

With passions running dangerously high in Israel, few Israeli officials granted much credit to Mr Arafat's tentative first efforts to make amends. A few hours after the attack, he issued a statement deploring the assassination, and pledged to hunt down the killers. His security forces detained, and then released, the PFLP spokesman.

However, Israeli officials said the killing had taken the Palestinian revolt beyond a point of no return. "The US was different after September 11. This is our September 11," said Uzi Landau, the public security minister, and a fellow rightwinger. He said the assassination meant the death of peace initiatives in the region, and that it was unlikely that Israel could be persuaded to exercise any further restraint. A video released by the PFLP yesterday showed three gunmen swathed in red checkered keffiyehs and clutching M-16 rifles. One read out a statement, saying: "Rehavam Zeevi will only be the first." In a further sign of defiance, the PFLP borrowed a tactic from Islamist radicals to carry out the group's first suicide attack last night. The bomber blew himself up beside an army jeep patrolling on the Israeli side of the divide with the Gaza Strip, slightly injuring two soldiers.

Yesterday's assassination also appears to have emboldened Hamas, which has issued its own threats to kill Jewish politicians. A senior leader said Israel had brought the tragedy on itself by resuming its assassination policy. "I consider Zeevi as the major terrorist in Israel," said the Hamas leader, Abdel Aziz Rantissi. "The one who murdered and assassinated Zeevi is Sharon and the policies of Sharon."

FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Global Policy Forum distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C íŸ 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.