Do the attacks have to be "large"? Is it any less terror to pick Israeli civilian souls off one by one, or five by five? Typical diplomatic weasel words, leaving wiggle room for the subhumans the pin-stripe guys like to think of as normal people.
Leni
The "large attack" part is probably diplo-speak for "we expect the Israelis to avoid disproportionate responses." IOW, the IDF can't start carpet bombing Ramallah in retaliation for a suicide bombing.
However, I think the important part of the message is this: the US would not be responsible for any Israeli reply.
IOW, Tenet told Arafat that the U.S. will not act as a buffer between Israel and the PA, as it has done in the past, so long as the IDF doesn't take what we percieve to be unreasonably harsh steps.
We'll see how that plays out over the next couple of days, as the IDF responds to the car bombing.