Arafat's Dance Of Death

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Salah Darwazeh provides a case in point. Before the intifadeh, Darwazeh, a Hamas bombmaker, got to know members of Arafat's Force 17 security unit when they guarded his cell at the Jeneid prison in the West Bank city of Nablus. When he was released, he paid them to watch over his bombmaking lab on Wadi Tuffah Street in Nablus, an arrangement that continued until Darwazeh was assassinated by Israel in July. Other examples of common effort:

--On Oct. 28, four Israeli women were gunned down at a crowded bus stop in the city of Hadera. The attack was claimed by Islamic Jihad, but the two men who carried it out were active members of the Palestinian police force.

--On Nov. 6, an Israeli army reservist, Captain Eyal Sela, was shot dead on a West Bank road by a gang that included one member from Fatah, one from Hamas and one from a communist group within the P.L.O. that has been quiet for years.

--On Nov. 27, two gunmen opened fire with Kalashnikovs on a crowd of people near the central bus station in the city of Afula, killing two young Israeli men. Fatah and Islamic Jihad shared responsibility.

--On Nov. 29, the same two groups took responsibility for the suicide bombing of a bus on its way from Nazareth to Hadera. Three Israelis died.

--On Dec. 1, two suicide bombers struck the busy Ben Yehuda pedestrian mall in downtown Jerusalem, killing 11 Israelis. One of the bombers was from Hamas; the other had just resigned from the Palestinian General Intelligence.

It's no coincidence that the number of joint attacks has grown at the same time Arafat's popularity and authority have sunk to new lows. Since the Authority has never allowed much room for internal dissent, the joint operations have become a new outlet through which to criticize and embarrass Arafat. "We in Fatah are the ones who shouldered the burden of the peace project," says a West Bank security official, citing the group's work in building Authority institutions. "But in spite of what we have suffered, Arafat doesn't listen to us."

The Israelis are not concerned about the reasons behind the joint terror. They just want the attacks to cease and are no longer waiting for Arafat to stop them. After a devastating spasm of suicide bombings at the start of the month, the Israelis, as usual, gave Arafat a list of suspects to arrest. His forces picked up a handful, but none was a big fish. One who got away, a Hamas leader from the village of a-Til near Tulkarem, was therefore free to send the Emmanuel attackers on their mission, according to Israeli intelligence.

Upon severing relations with Arafat last week, the Israelis announced that they would from now on make their own arrests of Palestinian fugitives. That means violating a key component of the Oslo peace accords, which forbid Israeli forces to enter territory under Authority control unless they are in "hot pursuit" of a wanted individual. But the right-wing Sharon has never liked the Oslo accords, which were negotiated under a dovish government. He immediately delivered on his vow, sending his troops, backed by tanks, into West Bank towns to arrest 50 suspected militants. For good measure, Israeli fighter planes and helicopter gunships blasted buildings belonging to Arafat's various security forces. In a gunfight near Nablus, Israeli troops killed six Palestinian policemen.