This is the price being paid today for the miserable past; and it is the direct result of the policies of the Arab, including Palestinian, "leaders", most of whom remain in power today. The future is likely to be worse still as long as these "leaders" are not made to account for what they have allowed to take place and the terribly repressive and corrupt systems they have put in place with the help of the Americans, and Israelis as well, brought to an end.

GAZA (Reuters - 6 April) - Israeli tanks pounded Palestinian targets in Gaza on Friday after helicopters swept into action in retaliation for bomb attacks on two towns inside Israel.

The violence and Thursday's killing of an Islamic militant in a phone booth explosion in the West Bank followed U.S.-arranged Israeli-Palestinian security talks earlier in the week that brought no break in the cycle of bloodshed.

Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said the goal of Israel's military operations was to push Palestinian President Yasser Arafat back to the negotiating table.

"I think Arafat is a partner (to peace) and I will continue to see him as a partner," Ben-Eliezer told Israel's largest daily newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth.

Israel stepped up its attacks amid international criticism of its latest plan to expand Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza.

France and Egypt followed Washington's tough reaction to the plan with statements on Friday. Egypt said Palestinians could not be blamed for reacting to the Israeli "provocation."

Tanks pounded a Palestinian security outpost near the Jewish settlement of Netzarim, where mortar bombs landed overnight, Israel Radio reported.

The army said it attacked in response to Palestinian mortar fire on villages in Israel and Gaza, which caused no casualties.

Palestinian Public Security Chief Major-General Abdel Razek al-Majaydeh said four security posts were hit in the second attack by Israeli helicopter gunships on Gaza in 48 hours.

Five people were slightly wounded, hospital sources said.

Stone-throwing Palestinians confronted Israeli soldiers in the West Bank cities of Ramallah, Qalqilya, Bethlehem and Hebron. Twenty-five were injured by rubber-coated metal bullets, hospital sources and witnesses said.

Three more stone-throwers were shot in the legs by live bullets in the West Bank village of Al-Khader near Bethlehem, hospital sources and witnesses said.

The army was not immediately available for comment but its spokesman said it was making little progress against the uprising.

"Since the end of September we have been trying to extinguish the Palestinian bonfire and you could say we have not succeeded," said Brigadier-General Ron Kitrey, chief spokesman of the Israeli army.

At least 369 Palestinians, 71 Israelis and 13 Israeli Arabs have been killed in the Palestinian uprising for independence that erupted in September after peace talks failed.

As Israel prepared for the week-long Passover holiday, commemorating the biblical exodus of the Israelites from Egyptian slavery, the militant Islamic Jihad group vowed to avenge the killing of one of its West Bank leaders.

Iyad al-Hardan was blown up in a telephone booth which he often used, about 10 meters (yards) from a Palestinian prison where he was jailed.

"We affirm to the leaders of the enemy that our struggle persists and that assassinations and liquidations will not affect our march," Islamic Jihad, which has carried out bombings in Israel, said in a statement faxed to Reuters in Beirut.

It said it had fired mortar bombs on Nahal Oz, a kibbutz inside Israel, in response to the killing of Hardan.

Palestinian officials also blamed Israel for Hardan's death, the latest in what they say is a string of assassinations of activists on the front line of the uprising.

Kitrey said the army was not responsible, but he did not deny that other Israeli security forces may have killed Hardan.

"I did not say that the Israeli army did not know," he told Israel's Army Radio. "I said the Israeli army was not involved."

The 1996 Israeli killing of accused master bombmaker Yahya Ayyash, known as The Engineer, with a booby-trapped cellular phone, triggered a wave of revenge suicide bombings in which scores of Israelis died.

U.S. CONDEMNS SETTLEMENT POLICY

The United States rebuked Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government on Thursday over its latest plans to build 700 new homes in Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza.

Using unprecedentedly harsh language, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher called the plans "provocative."

France accused Israel on Friday of having "taken a wrong turning."

Foreign Ministry spokesman Francois Rivasseau criticized "the provocative announcement of the resumption of settlements in the occupied territories, the continuation of the so-called extrajudicial murders (and) the military clashes in Gaza..."

A spokesman for Sharon said on Friday the move did not change Israeli policy of building no new settlements but constructing more homes in existing ones.

Palestinians hailed the U.S. criticism but called for greater pressure on Israel to stop all settlement activity.

"There is a beginning of American involvement but the Americans are required to put pressure on Israel to stop settlements and implement the signed agreements," Nabil Abu Rdainah, an adviser to Arafat, told Reuters.

Dore Gold, an adviser to Sharon, rejected the U.S. criticism. "We respect the American viewpoint but we have our opposition (to the U.S. viewpoint) as well," he said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters - 6 April) - Nearly 300 U.S. lawmakers are urging President Bush to reassess U.S. relations with the Palestinians, who they blame for the upsurge of violence in the Middle East.

The lawmakers said Bush should consider whether aid to the Palestinians should continue and whether the PLO office in Washington should be allowed to remain open. A coalition of 87 Senators and 209 House members from both political parties criticized the Palestinians in a letter sent to Bush on Thursday.

The lawmakers wrote that the Palestinians have embarked ``on a deliberate campaign'' of violence against Israelis, initiating ''on average over 30 incidents'' a day against Israeli soldiers and civilians.

At least 367 Palestinians, 71 Israelis, and 13 Israeli Arabs have been killed in the Palestinian uprising, which exploded in late September when peacemaking reached a stalemate.

The lawmakers said Bush's reassessment of relations should also ``examine whether those Palestinians involved in attacks against Israelis should be barred from coming to the United States.'' It also said the U.S. should examine whether groups involved in the violence should be designated foreign terrorist organizations.

``Responsibility for the recent breakdown of the peace process and outbreak of violence in the Middle East clearly lies with the Palestinians,'' said California Congressman Tom Lantos, the ranking Democrat on the House International Relations Committee.

Lantos put much of the blame on Palestinian Authority (news - web sites) President Yasser Arafat (news - web sites), who the congressman said had violated his commitment to strive for peace.

``Arafat has turned a blind eye as Palestinian terrorists have targeted innocent Israeli men, women and children for deadly ambushes and suicide attacks,'' Lantos wrote.

Kansas Republican Senator Sam Brownback noted that the basis of the relationship between the U.S. and the Palestinians was founded on their renunciations of violence and terrorism. The U.S. lawmakers criticized Arafat for rejecting a peace proposal offered last year by former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak (news - web sites). ``Arafat could have offered a genuine counterproposal. Instead he unleashed violence that calls into serious question his suitability as a peace partner,'' Brownback said.

The Palestinian representative in Washington told the Washington Post the lawmakers' criticism was ''counterproductive'' and could diminish Washington's role as a sponsor of the Middle East peace process.

Hassan Abdel Rahman also told the newspaper: ``It is not based on fact and it totally ignores the suffering of the Palestinian people and the responsibility of the Israeli army for all the atrocities they have committed against the Palestinians.''

In comments last week, Bush urged both Israel and the Palestinians to exercise restraint, but focused strongly on the need for Palestinians to halt the violence so peace talks could go forward.

(Press Release from Israeli/Jewish Lobby in Washington)*

(Washington, D.C.- 6 April) - In light of more than six months of Palestinian violence against Israel, AIPAC applauded the 87 members of the Senate and the 209 members of the House for sending letters today to President Bush urging him to reassess U.S. relations with the Palestinian Authority.

AIPAC President Tim Wuliger and Executive Director Howard Kohr thanked Sens. Sam Brownback (R-KS), Joe Biden (D-DE), Bill Frist (R-TN), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Don Nickles (R-OK) and Joseph Lieberman (D-CT), and Reps. Henry Hyde (R-IL), Tom Lantos (D-CA), Benjamin Gilman (R-NY) and Gary Ackerman (D-NY) for sponsoring the letters.

"These letters to the president recognize that the continued use of violence by Yasir Arafat and the Palestinians will have consequences impacting the U.S.-Palestinian relationship," Wuliger and Kohr said.

In calling for a reassessment of the U.S.-Palestinian relationship, members of Congress said such a review should examine the following questions: 1) Should Palestinian groups involved in violence, such as the PLO-affiliated groups Force 17 and Tanzim, be designated as foreign terrorist organizations? 2) Is U.S. aid to the Palestinians meeting its goals? 3) Is it appropriate for Arafat to be invited to meet with high-level officials in Washington while the violence continues?

"From our perspective, it is time for the United States to require that the leadership of the Palestinian Authority speak and act against the continuing violence and terrorism, or face a significant change in our relations with them," the lawmakers said in their letters.

Below are the full texts of the Senate and House letters:

SENATE LETTER

Dear Mr. President:

We are writing you out of a deep sense of frustration, anger and concern over recent events in the Middle East. Less than eight months ago at Camp David, Israel offered a final status proposal to the Palestinians that was breathtaking in the scope of its concessions. The Palestinians rejected the Israeli offer, and a member of the Palestinian Authority said: "The issues of Jerusalem, the refugees and sovereignty will be decided on the ground and not in negotiations*the situation in the future will be more violent than the Intifada.

Over the past several months, the Palestinians have initiated on average over 30 "incidents" a day against Israeli soldiers and civilians. Initially, rocks and guns were used; increasingly, it is mortars and anti-tank missiles. Many of these attacks are well-planned operations involving the highest levels of the Palestinian security forces, openly led by the PLO's own militia, the Tanzim. Arafat's release from detention since July of over 130 members of the most radical anti-Israel groups directly involved in attacks against Israelis has resulted in the commission of many acts of terror. He has never once since the start of the violence in September stood up and addressed his people in Arabic unequivocally calling for an end to the violence.

Mr. President, the United States opened a dialogue with the PLO, allowed the PLO to maintain an office in Washington, allowed PLO officials to visit the United States and provided funding to the Palestinians under very specific conditions: that the Palestinian leadership remain committed to the negotiating process and that they renounce the use of violence. In fact, Section 1302 of the international and Development Act of 1985 specifically prohibits any employee of the U.S. Government from negotiating with a PLO official unless the PLO "renounces the use of terrorism."

Given the drastic changes that have taken place in recent months we believe it is time for the United States to initiate a reassessment of our relations with the Palestinians. Such reassessment should, in our view, examine whether those Palestinian groups involved in violence, such as the PLO-affiliated groups Force 17 and Tanzim, should be designated as foreign terrorist organizations under Sections 219 of 8 USC 1189, whether US aid to the Palestinians is in fact meetings its goals, and whether it is appropriate for Arafat to be invited to meet with high-level officials in Washington while the violence continues; we also believe that you should reaffirm America's opposition to a unilaterally-declared independent Palestinian state.

We raise these questions with tremendous sorrow about the turn of events in the region. The Palestinians had a unique opportunity to secure virtually everything they had been seeking from Israel at the negotiating table. For reasons that baffle us, they chose instead to use violence against Israel. That decision comes at a great cost to everyone involved and with no foreseeable benefit. From our perspective, it is time for the US to require that the leadership of the Palestinian Authority speak and act against the continuing violence and terrorism, or face a significant change in our relations with them.

It is also time for those of us in both parties who serve in Congress and in your Administration to restate our commitment to Israel's security and to the uniquely common values and interests which America and Israel share.

Mr. President, we look forward to your thoughts on these issues and to working together on them.

HOUSE LETTER

Dear Mr. President:

We are writing you out of a deep sense of frustration and concern over recent events in the Middle East. Less than eight months ago at Camp David, Israel offered a final status proposal to the Palestinians that was extraordinary in the scope of its concessions. The Palestinian response was not only to reject Israel's offer, but to embark on a deliberate campaign of violence against Israelis, derailing prospects for a final peace agreement.

Indeed, the real response to Israel was given by a member of the Palestinian Authority, Abu Ali Mustafa, two days before the Camp David summit ended, that: "The issues of Jerusalem, the refugees and sovereignty will be decided on the ground and not in negotiations...the situation in the future will be more violent than the Intifada."

Mr. Mustafa was tragically right. Over the past several months, the Palestinians have initiated on average over 30 "incidents" a day against Israeli soldiers and civilians. Initially, rocks and guns were used; increasingly, it is mortars and anti-tank missiles. Many of the attacks are well-planned operations involving the highest levels of the Palestinian security forces, openly led by the PLO's own militia. PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat has released from detention since July over 130 members of the most radical anti-Israel groups directly involved in attacks against Israelis and has suspended all security cooperation with Israel. Since the start of the violence in September, he has never once stood up and addressed his people in Arabic unequivocally calling for an end to the violence, despite calls to do so by the United States.

Mr. President, the United States opened a dialogue with the PLO, allowed the PLO to maintain an office in Washington, allowed PLO officials to visit the United States and provided funding to the Palestinians under very specific conditions: that the Palestinian leadership remain committed to the negotiating process and that they renounce the use of violence. In fact, Section 1302 of the International Security and Development Act of 1985 specifically prohibits any employee of the U.S. government from negotiating with a PLO official unless the PLO "renounces the use of terrorism."

Given the drastic changes that have taken place in recent months in Palestinian behavior, we believe it is time for the United States to reassess our relations with the Palestinians. Such a reassessment should, in our view, examine whether those Palestinians involved in attacks against Israelis should be barred from coming to the United States, whether those Palestinian groups involved in violence should be designated as foreign terrorist organizations under 8 USC 1189, whether the PLO office in Washington should be allowed to remain open, and whether US aid to the Palestinians is in fact meeting its goals and should continue. While this reassessment is taking place, we do not believe Chairman Arafat should be invited to meet with high-level officials in Washington. We also believe that you should reaffirm America's opposition to a unilaterally-declared independent Palestinian state.

We raise these questions with sorrow about the turn of events in the region. The Palestinians had a unique opportunity to secure virtually everything they had been seeking from Israel at the negotiating table. Inexplicably, they rejected this option and chose instead to initiate a campaign of violence against Israel. This campaign comes at a great cost to everyone involved and with little foreseeable benefit. From our perspective, it is time for the United States to require that the leadership of the Palestinians speak and act against the continuing violence and terrorism, or face a significant change in our relationship with them.

It is also time for those of us in both parties who serve in Congress and your Administration to restate our commitment to Israel's security and the uniquely common values and interests which Americans and Israelis share.

Mr. President, we look forward to working with you on these issues.

* [AIPAC Self-Description): Consistently ranked as the most influential foreign policy lobbying organization on Capitol Hill, AIPAC is an American membership organization that seeks to strengthen the relationship between Israel and the United States. For more than 40 years, AIPAC has been working with Congress to build a strong, vibrant relationship between the United States and Israel. Its 55,000 activists throughout the United States work to improve and strengthen that relationship by supporting U.S.-Israel military, economic, scientific and cultural cooperation.