Is Sharon missing his opportunity?

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Israel's inner security cabinet meeting yesterday afternoon faced the bald option between going to war proper against Arafat and his Palestinian Authority or holding off again and living with a savagely spiraling casualty toll – 14 Israelis dead in the last two weeks.

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The cabinet meeting was a formality. DEBKAfile's military sources reveal that Sharon is considering a telephone call to U.S. President George W. Bush to describe the vicious spiral in which Israel is trapped and ask to be released from the pledges he gave him in the White House on Feb. 7. The foremost of those pledges was to refrain from harming Yasser Arafat or Palestinian civilians until the United States launches its offensive against Iraq. The prime minister will explain that Israel can no longer endure the rising tempo and ferocity of Palestinian attacks; his government will not survive if it continues to stand by while Arafat is exploiting to the hilt the grace period he has won before the U.S. Iraq offensive.

Insistent demands for an all-out offensive to destroy Arafat's terror infrastructure are coming from almost every quarter of the country as the Palestinians upgrade their tools of war and methods of operation, focusing both on military targets and civilians.

DEBKAfile's military sources report that Israelis are not alone; senior Palestinian factions have also signaled a desperate SOS, warning Israel to take drastic action to quell the violence before it is too late to stave off a terrible disaster – confirming DEBKA's reports in recent weeks.

Yet yesterday, Sharon showed himself incapable of cutting through to a clear decision.

Again, he procrastinated, postponing action on how to stem Palestinian violence to "later in the week."

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While the Israeli government dithers, the Palestinians could not be clearer about their objectives.

Arafat is activating his two most effective terrorist masters, Muhamed Dahlan, the Palestinian Authority's chief security officer in the Gaza Strip and Tawfiq Tirawi, West Bank General Intelligence chief in the West Bank. While Tirawi runs the Fatah's Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, Dahlan heads its Gazan equivalent, the Saladin Brigades, the military wing of the "Popular Resistance Committees," in which the Fatah-Tanzim, Popular Front, Hamas and Jihad Islami are grouped.

Tirawi is Arafat's liaison man with Saddam Hussein's military intelligence, whereas Dahlan is his channel to the Iran-backed Hezbollah and al-Qaida contingents in Lebanon.

Between them, Arafat, Dahlan and Tirawi have parlayed the uprising against Israel into the positions of top dogs of the Muslim terror movement. They have brought together the terrorist groups sponsored by Iraq, Iran, al-Qaida and the Palestinians for a do-or-die confrontation against Israel.

This confrontation accords with the interests of both Tehran and Baghdad, as a vehicle for distancing the threat of an American offensive from their borders.

The Israeli prime minister is dodging the issue facing him: If the IDF fails to smash Arafat's war machine, it will face the advancing forces of al Aqsa Brigades, the Saladin Brigades, the Hezbollah, Iraq and al-Qaida combined – and a constantly rising level of bloodshed. The only Palestinian forces still in communication with Israel will be obliterated. No rational Palestinian voice will survive to stem the red tide.

Israel has been racked by relentless terror for 17 months. If Sharon gets up the courage for total war, it will have to make a supreme effort to gather all its military, economic and emotional resources to achieve victory. What has weakened the country most of all has been a government that speaks in two voices: One voice says that Israel will have to sit down and talk peace with the Palestinian leader at some point, and the sooner the better. The other voice declares this a pipedream – not because of Sharon, but because of Arafat.

The motto on his escutcheon and that of his backers and followers is: "With blood and fire, we shall redeem Palestine!"

Arafat is not fighting Israel to improve his bargaining position or win a place of honor in world history. Even if the Oslo faction on Israel's political left forces the government to sign the most generous peace accord imaginable meeting every last Palestinian condition, Arafat will fight on. He makes no secret of his fidelity to the Prophet Muhammad's precept, the spirit of which is an injunction to Muslims to negotiate accords with the Jews and then deceive them. That is exactly what the Palestinian leader did before the ink was dry on the 1993 Oslo Accords. To merit a place of honor in Arab-Muslim history, he knows what he needs to do: to vanquish the Jews or die in the attempt.