A Murder at Morning

If some Israelis wanted Arafat's head in retribution, Cabinet ministers at least kept the public discussion of reprisal more civil. "Arafat's the main problem. We have to get rid of him," said Finance Minister Silvan Shalom, suggesting that Israel bar the Palestinian leader from re-entering the Gaza Strip after the next of his frequent diplomatic jaunts abroad. "Things won't be the same as they were before," Sharon promised at the Cabinet meeting. "We will raise the level of reaction against the Palestinian Authority." After Ze'evi's death, Arafat told Peres he would rein in the P.F.L.P. But the Palestinian leader arrested fewer than 10 P.F.L.P. activists, none among them the five that Israel has accused in the killing of Ze'evi.

In any case, Israel was not waiting for Arafat to move. It continued its assassinations Thursday, killing Atef Abayat, the leader of the Palestinian militia Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, whom Israel blames for killing at least five Israelis. Abayat's booby-trapped car exploded in Bethlehem. In response, Palestinian gunmen in nearby Beit Jala fired on the Jewish neighborhood of Gilo in Jerusalem throughout the night. Israel moved its tanks deep into Bethlehem and Beit Jala by Friday. Israeli tanks were on the move around other Palestinian towns too.

It won't be with tanks and invasions alone that Israel avenges Ze'evi's death. Beyond the five cell members it connects to the hit, Israel holds responsible Zibri's replacement as P.F.L.P. chief, Ahmed Saadat, and the man it believes is the head of P.F.L.P. military operations, Shadi

Shurfeh. Both men live in Ramallah and have gone underground since the assassination. "They're living on borrowed time," says an Israeli intelligence officer. So are hopes for peace.