Echoes of Lebanon for Israel

Rehavam Zeevi was known for hardline security views

By Paul Anderson in Jerusalem

Ariel Sharon's first response to the assassination of his tourism minister was to warn that nothing would be the same again in Israel.

Less than 12 hours earlier he was hinting to party members of a new era of a different sort - one which the Palestinians might expect to lead to their own state if they ended the violence.

The road to peace was always going to be long and rocky - particularly with Ariel Sharon in charge. Now it is a road with no end.

I want to remind the public that after an attack against a diplomat at an embassy, a war broke out

Israeli Health Minister Nissim Daham

The Health Minister, Nissim Daham, said the people of Israel would soon know what the government plans to do.

"I want to remind the public that after an attack against a diplomat at an embassy, a war broke out," he said.

The minister was referring to the attempted Palestinian assassination in 1982 of the Israeli ambassador to London, Shlomo Argov. He was shot in the head by Abu Nidal gunmen outside the Dorchester Hotel.

In Jerusalem the then Israeli Prime Minister, Menachem Begin, convened an emergency cabinet meeting, just as Ariel Sharon has today.

"Ambassadors represent the state," were his first words as he walked in.

"An assault on an Israeli ambassador is tantamount to an attack on the state of Israel."

Israel launched air strikes in and around the Lebanese capital Beirut the following day, marking the start of war.

Same faces, different posts

The question nearly 20 years later is how might Israel regard the assassination of a minister?

But there are other questions as well. Who, for example, was the man in charge of the military operation in Lebanon? The answer - the then Defence Minister, Ariel Sharon.

And what was the target of the first strikes? The head of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), Yasser Arafat, who then had offices and organisational infrastructure in Beirut.

And what was the objective of the operation? To get at the PLO - no matter that Abu Nidal and Yasser Arafat were sworn enemies.

Menachem Begin was no more bothered over which Palestinian organisation carried out the attack on his representative than Ariel Sharon is now. They all fall under the umbrella of the PLO, and Yasser Arafat was then, and is now, its head.

Palestinians celebrated the killing

It would be premature to take the parallels any further. Israel ended its occupation of southern Lebanon last year. The world changed on 11 September.

But the actors and memories in the Middle East go back a long way. To Israel today, Yasser Arafat remains the head of several Palestinian militant groups in all but name.

They include the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which says it carried out Wednesday's assassination, Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

For the past month the Israelis have sought to portray the Palestinian leader as Israel's answer to Osama Bin Laden. Posters showing the two together characterised as "twins of terrorism" are pasted over walls in Jerusalem.

Israel's own 'war against terrorism'

Employing the rhetoric of US President George W Bush, Israel maintains that Mr Arafat harbours terrorists in the occupied territories, and that they and their sponsors should be fought.

It sees its own struggle against the Palestinians as a mission running parallel to the United States' war on terror.

Until now, that has not washed in the West, which is keen to do business with Mr Arafat if it leads to renewed peace talks. Now Israel will be saying "we told you so".

The Israelis have been demanding Mr Arafat bring the violence against Israelis to an end as a pre-condition to peace talks. They say he has the power but lacks the will and the assassination of Rehavam Zeevi is the proof.

Mr Arafat has condemned the assassination and ordered an immediate search for, and arrest of, those responsible.

But it goes beyond that.

If he cannot stop the violence and arrest many others, Israelis say, they will do it themselves. Yasser Arafat will have to act quickly and decisively to prevent that.