MUCH ADO ABOUT HAMAS

Before TV cameras, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and his Cabinet spun a whirlwind of threats and possible further moves to get at the elusive terrorists--including an international campaign to cut off donations to Hamas from charity groups in the U.S. and elsewhere, and drafting all eligible Israeli youths into the police force, rather than the army, ostensibly to fight the group. "There's a political necessity for creating a lot of noise and the illusion you're doing something," says TIME Jerusalem bureau chief Lisa Beyer.