JPost

(08:30) Israel: PA is terror-supporting entity By The Jerusalem Post Internet Staff

After lengthy overnight cabinet deliberations, Israel decided to designate the Palestinian Authority a terror-supporting entity that "must be dealt with accordingly," according to a cabinet statement.

Israel also declared the Tanzim militia and PA Chairman Yasser Arafat's elite Force 17 personal protection unit as terrorist organizations.

According to the cabinet statement, they "will be acted against accordingly."

In the framework of the cabinet decision regarding the PA's newly designated status as a terror-supporting entity, "the Ministerial Committee for National Security is authorized to decide on operational steps (military, diplomatic, information and economic)," according to the statement.

"This determination is subject to change - by Cabinet decision - if the Palestinian Authority fulfills its commitments, according to the agreements, to prevent and foil terrorism, punish terrorists and dismantle the terrorist infrastructure."

Labor Party ministers reportedly walked out of the cabinet meeting before the vote was taken in protest over the decision to launch sustained military strikes on the PA.

Transport Minister Ephraim Sneh (Labor) hinted that Labor might quit the coalition, saying that "the unity government is important to us ... but not at every price." Labor favors rehabilitating ties with Arafat.

"If the Palestinians are divided between different armed groups, they will be able to do nothing really to build a new society or to build an independent state," Foreign Minister Shimon Peres told European foreign ministers gathered in Bucharest for an anti-terrorism conference.

"As long as they're divided, they are endangering the destiny of the Palestinians," he said, calling on Arafat "to be responsible for the destiny of the Palestinians.

"We don't want to rule their future," he said.

Peres said there were too many armed Palestinian groups pulling the region into different directions, and he urged Arafat to consolidate his command with a central authority "over all the armed forces."

Palestinian official Tayeb Abdel Rahim warned this afternoon that Israeli military strikes "will push some of us to reassess this position." Jibril Rajoub, Palestinian Authority security chief in the West Bank, warned the decisions of the Israeli Cabinet will "push us and the situation into more violence and bloodshed."

(The Associated Press contributed to this report)

-- Anonymous, December 04, 2001