Bibi's New Deal Breaker

One day after the end of the Gulf standoff, and Bibi Netanyahu has a new excuse for delaying implementation of the Wye agreement. The Israeli leader on Monday suspended Israeli troop withdrawals from the West Bank until Yasser Arafat drops his long-standing plan to declare a Palestinian state next May. Netanyahu had found a number of reasons to delay implementation of the deal over the past month, but Washington's need for Arab support on the Iraq crisis -- articulated by President Clinton in a Tuesday-night phone call to Netanyahu -- created the pressure for him to secure the necessary cabinet vote last Wednesday.

The thinking behind Netanyahu's latest move may have been revealed by Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon Sunday night: Sharon told right-wing settlers that a Palestinian state wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing for Israel, and then urged them to grab as much land as they can. "We'll expand the area," said Sharon. "Whatever is seized will be ours. Whatever isn't seized will end up in their hands." There's little the Israelis can realistically do to stop Arafat from declaring a state, but they'll do their best to restrict him to a Rorschach splatter hardly visible on a world map. Which is a good reason not to bet that Israeli troops will be striking camp any time soon.