Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat condemned the latest suicide attack in the newspapers yesterday but canceled a television appearance to call for an end to the so-called martyr missions.
Arafat gave no explanation for his apparent reluctance to repeat the message of condemnation to the Palestinian people on the small screen.
"Perhaps he canceled it because the Israeli tanks are moving in and the Israeli government decided to call up the army reserves," Palestinian Labor Minister Ghassan Khatib said.
In interviews with reporters, Arafat forcefully condemned the back-to-back suicide bomb attacks in Jerusalem this week that killed 26 Israelis.
"I personally, and the Palestinian Authority, are completely against it," he said in Ramallah.
Those words were echoed in a statement that appeared in Palestinian papers and was read on Voice of Palestine radio.
But White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said President Bush "is looking for action" — not words — from Arafat. And Israeli observers suggested he issued the statement of condemnation to appease prominent Palestinians who took out a newspaper ad demanding an end to the terror campaign.
The ad contained 50 signatures, and another 150 signed on yesterday. Organizers hope the list of signers will gain momentum.
"The opposition is growing on two levels," said prominent Palestinian writer Daoud Kuttab, who signed the statement. "The first is against targeting civilians, and the second is against sacrificing our young men and women in actions that seem senseless."
Many Support Attacks
But Israelis suspect that Arafat didn't go before TV cameras to condemn suicide bombers to avoid antagonizing the majority of Palestinians — 68% according to a recent poll — who support them.
The editor of an Israeli newspaper yesterday voiced the country's dismay over the widespread support among Palestinians for attacks that have claimed the lives of hundreds of civilians.
"What kind of human beings are you ... that you initiate, support, cheer and are pleased by these cruel, inhuman suicide bombings?" Amnon Danker, editor-in-chief of Ma'ariv wrote in an editorial.
Callers to Voice of Israel radio talk shows were not impressed that Palestinian intellectuals had spoken out against suicide attacks.
"After Sabra and Shatila, hundreds of thousands of Israelis demonstrated against their own government," said one caller, referring to massacres of Palestinians at refugee camps in Lebanon that were carried out under the nose of the Israeli Army. "Where are the Palestinians demonstrating against atrocities committed by their own people?"