MID-EAST REALITIES © - www.MiddleEast.Org - Washington - 6/02: Arafat is in an impossible situation, one prepared for him by his worst enemies but one he has considerably helped put himself in by incompetence, corruption, and ineptitude. If he turns to severe repression of his own people on orders from the Israelis and the CIA, the only way the Intifada can now be stopped, he creates the conditions for his own eventual demise from within, and maybe a Palestinian civil war. If he does not, the clock for demolishing his "Authority" and exiling or even capturing him is ticking. There have been other moments in history like this in the Middle East, often with non other than General Ariel Sharon in command at one crucial level or another. Sharon waited more than a year for the excuse to invade Lebanon in 1982, and then pounced when Israel's Ambassador in London was shot even though Prime Minister Maggie Thatcher at the time publicly went on record that those who did it were anti-PLO anti-Arafat Palestinians. It appears Sharon has once more set the stage, is now waiting for and provoking the excuse, with the tanks positioned and set to roll.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip –– Associated Press, 2 June: Dozens of foreigners living and working in the Gaza Strip left Saturday amid fears of an Israeli military retaliation for a suicide bombing that killed the bomber and 18 young people at a Tel Aviv disco.

The foreigners packed lightly, expecting to return within a few days, after being contacted by their consulates and embassies in Israel, said a Palestinian employee of a foreign consulate who requested anonymity. He said he knew of at least 20 foreigners who left Gaza on Saturday.

Eighteen young people were killed late Friday when a suicide bomber blew himself up near dozens of people waiting in line to enter a Tel Aviv beachfront nightclub. Ninety Israelis were wounded in the attack, including 14 who were in serious or critical condition.

After previous bomb attacks, Israel has responded by shelling Palestinian security installations, but not civilian offices. But in the West Bank and Gaza Saturday, the Palestinian Authority ordered its employees to leave their offices.

Other foreigners took measures to prevent their homes and offices from becoming Israeli military targets, flying their national flags from official residences and offices.

A large Omani flag flew from the top of its ambassador's home Saturday, while Egyptian flags were hoisted on the front gate and the roof of the residence of the Egyptian representative to the Palestinian Authority, which is located near Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's compound in Gaza.

Four Australian flags were erected over a tourist resort north of Gaza City operated by Abdel Karim Sabawi, a Palestinian-Austrialian.

The U.S. embassy said recent events, including the brief detention of an American journalist by militants several days ago, heightened its concern for the safety of U.S. citizens in Gaza.

"Americans should not travel to Gaza at the present time and those who live there should depart to a safer location when they can do so," the embassy said in a travel warning issued to American citizens Saturday.

A convoy of cars carrying foreign staffers of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency left the agency's compound in Gaza Saturday afternoon. The cars were loaded with luggage.

U.N. officials would not say whether the United Nations had ordered its foreign staffers to leave the Gaza Strip.

JERUSALEM, June 2 (AFP) - A tough Israeli response to the Tel Aviv bombing looked unlikely Saturday evening, as Israel gave Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat 24 hours to carry out his promise that he would do "whatever is necessary" to achieve a ceasefire.

Following Arafat's pledge, Israel's inner security cabinet gave Arafat no more than 24 hours to prove he wants to work to calm the violent situation in the region, according to Israeli public radio.

The Tel Aviv suicide bombing, which left 19 dead and more than 100 injured, was the deadliest incident so far in the eight-month Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation, and brought the death toll to nearly 600.

The Gaza Strip was eerily silent on Saturday, with Palestinians evacuating public buildings in fear that Israel would abandon its 10-day-old unilateral ceasefire and come at them with all guns blazing, witnesses said.

Despite wide Israeli scepticism over Arafat's declaration, Israeli Arab parliament member Ahmed Tibi told Israeli television that Arafat had already started to work for a ceasefire.

"Arafat made an important declaration to that effect and has started to phone his aids over the past hours in order to make sure his commitment to a return to calm is carried out in the field", Tibi said after a meeting with the Palestinian leader.

Pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to strike back at the Palestinians has been mounting domestically, with demonstrators calling for "war" outside the defence ministry in Tel Aviv where Sharon met with senior ministers and military chiefs.

Israeli Science and Culture Minister Matan Vilnai, a member of the security cabinet, implied Israel would wait to see if Arafat's ceasefire statement is consolidated by acts on the ground.

"He says he will do everything. Let him do it, and we will see."

For his part, Dan Meridor, the head of the Israeli parliament's foreign affairs and defense committee, said: "The ball is in Arafat's court. The only way for him to avoid dangerous developments is to clearly order a ceasefire on his radio".

"We are in the process of judging how serious this order is, if he arrests the men in Hamas and Islamic Jihad, in all about 100 terrorist experts whom he has previously freed," Meridor said about Arafat's declaration.

But Israeli television's military commentator reported that the security cabinet had secretly decided to break its unilateral ceasefire without authorising any spectacular military strikes that could harm Israel's image.

Arafat condemned Friday's as-yet-unclaimed attack, which ripped through a line of Israeli teenagers waiting to enter a beachside night club, saying he was against any killing of civilians.

"We are ready to make the utmost effort to stop the bloodbath among our people and the Israeli people, and to do whatever is necessary for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire," Arafat told reporters.

Shortly afterwards, senior Palestinian peace negotiator Saeb Erakat, called for US Middle East envoy William Burns to return to the region immediately to help the sides work to implement a ceasefire.

Three radical Palestinian groups, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine groups, which have mounted previous suicide bomb attacks, refrained from claiming responsibility.

But Hamas politbureau chief Khaled Meshaal justified the attack as a form of "self-defence" and said more suicide bombings would surely follow.

"Nothing can halt these attacks and resistance except the departure of (Israel's) occupation forces" from Palestinian land, he said.

Seven people were lightly injured Saturday in clashes with police as hundreds of enraged Israelis sought revenge against Arabs after the bomb blast, throwing rocks at a mosque near the Tel Aviv neighborhood of Jaffa.

The Israeli army said Saturday it had imposed a blockade on all Palestinian towns and villages in the neighbouring West Bank following the bombing and advised all Palestinians to leave Israel immediately.

Israeli leaders roundly condemned Arafat for the bombing, saying he had not taken action against perpetrators of violence.

US President George W. Bush had earlier urged Arafat to call for an "immediate ceasefire" after the Tel Aviv bombing which he denounced as a "heinous terrorist attack."

"There is no justification for senseless attacks against innocent civilians," Bush said in a statement issued from the presidential resort in Camp David, Maryland.

Condemnations of the attack poured in from numerous other world capitals, the European Union and the United Nations, while Egypt, Jordan and Russia called for restraint.

Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer accused Arafat of wanting "to provoke chaos in the Middle East."

Following the security cabinet meeting, Sharon's office said the security situation had forced the premier to cancel a trip planned for next week to Germany, Belgium and France to press Israel's case among European leaders.

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and US Secretary of State Colin Powell both cancelled a visit to an Organization of American States meeting in Costa Rica.

Israeli Communications Minister Reuvin Rivlin suggested Saturday that Israel might expel Arafat from the territories if he does not bring an end to the violence, underlining that it was only a possibility.

"Arafat himself is saying that he is controlling everything on the Palestinian side. If he can't, let him leave Palestine," Rivlin said. "Maybe we should send him far away from Gaza," Rivlin told AFP.