Ze'ev Schiff

At the beginning of this month, a small group of ministers headed by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon got together with heads of the Israel Defense Forces and other security branches. This forum decided the time had come to step up "targeted prevention," the term used for liquidating Palestinians involved in terrorism.

Something's gone wrong at the highest levels of the military-government echelons since the military conflict began with the Palestinians a year ago. It's not the lack of honest coordination between the office of Chief of Staff Shaul Mofaz and the offices of Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, as it is sometimes portrayed in the press.

The Health Ministry urgently needs NIS 40 million to top up its supply of antibiotics in order to withstand a biological terrorist attack and provide the population with adequate protection. The Health Ministry notified Finance Minster Silvan Shalom of the urgent need for the funds, but has yet to receive a reply.

Achieving a victory clear to all - especially to countries and organizations that support terrorism - will determine to a great extent the duration of the international war on terror and military moves in different parts of the world.

What impact will American and British military attacks against the Taliban regime, and Osama bin Laden's camps in Afghanistan have on the Middle East and Israel? Officials here believe that so long as the attacks are not directed against Arab targets such as Iraq or Hezbollah, it is not likely that Saddam Hussein, Hezbollah or others will declare Israel to be a legitimate target for attack.

The two grave events that took place over the last two days prove that the "cease-fire" greed upon by Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres does not exist on the ground and the violence is continuing to rage.

Over the last two days, the Israel Defense Forces and the defense establishment have been asking themselves two questions: Are the riots initiated yesterday by the Palestinian Authority connected to the first anniversary of the intifada? Secondly, can the riots be expected to calm down, or are they part of a move, contradicting Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's stated cease-fire, that should be seen as a continuation of hostilities and violence?

One of the most important military results of the Peres-Arafat meeting was Israel's agreeing to a Palestinian request to beef up security in the Rafah area.

The individual responsible for shooting last week at the Amrani family car, in which there were also three children who were not hurt, is Atef Abidat from Bethlehem.

Have the massive terrorist attacks in the United States given rise to a genuine opportunity for a cease-fire and an end to the military confrontation between Israel and the Palestinians? No definitive answer can yet be given to this question.

The thoroughly planned, massive terror strike against the United States is strategically like a surprise nuclear bomb falling on the strongest nation in the world.

The fact that Israel did not immediately react with massive force after the bombing of the Nahariya train station should not be misleading.

Just days before the much-talked-about meeting between Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat, a meeting that would have paved the way for talks between the PA leader and U.S. President George W. Bush, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has heated up to such an extent that Israel is now faced with a very real strategic dilemma.

While Israel has the full right, for defensive purposes, to undertake operational measures along the border due to the proliferation of terror attacks inside the country, the decision to set up closed military areas east of the Green Line alters the definitions of Areas A, B, and C in the West Bank as laid down by the Oslo Accords' Interim Agreement.

In assassinating the secretary-general of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Mustafa Zabri (a.k.a. Abu Ali Mustafa), who was considered a senior political leader, Israel broadened its military confrontation with the Palestinians.

Israel has many reasons to hit Mohammed Def, one of the heads of the military wing of Hamas, but he was not the target of yesterday's operation in Gaza. It is quite likely that Def did indeed happen into the area by chance as Palestinian sources claim. Def no doubt feels very lucky to be alive.

Yesterday afternoon Palestinian security forces - supporters of PA Chairman Yasser Arafat - could be seen making efforts to stop the shooting directed at the Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo.

The Israel Defense Forces already knew most of the information in the report of the United Nations investigation committee into the affair of the video recording of the scene where Hezbollah kidnapped three soldiers. The incident involved men from the Indian Battalion of UNIFIL and the evidence included details of large quantities of blood, suggesting that one or more of the kidnapped soldiers was mortally wounded.

This time it was Israel, not the Palestinian organizations, that stepped up the level of response. This is not a haphazard development but the result of thorough planning and serious premeditation following the perpetration of many terrorist attacks against Israel, a rise in the number of Israeli casualties and an increase in recent days in the number of mortars fired in the Gaza Strip.

Forensic evidence gathered for the UN shows that shots fired at a convoy carrying UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson last November came from a rifle used by Palestinian forces and from an area under PA control.

It is to be hoped that Mary Robinson conducts human rights affairs with more objectivity than is revealed by her handling of a shooting incident in Hebron last year, writes Ze'ev Schiff. As for the Danes, they don't deserve Carmi Gillon.

Palestinians fire first mortar shells at Gilo, Israel assassinates Hamas activists in Bethlehem.