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Once in Gaza, Peres sat back and listened to Arafat complain. The excitable Palestinian leader inflated the numbers of dead and wounded and sneered at measures Israel thought of as concessions. "I sensed an unbelievable gap," Peres said. But over dinner Peres calmed Arafat. After they ate a dessert of kunafeh, sweet semolina topped with shredded wheat and syrup, Peres and Arafat talked alone. By half past midnight, they had a deal. Arafat agreed to end the shooting--though not the stones and the Molotov cocktails. In return, Peres would persuade Barak to pull back some of Israel's tanks and troops from friction points in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
With the Palestinian public angered by the endless funerals of youths shot by Israeli soldiers, Arafat was in a precarious situation. His Palestinian Authority issued a statement announcing an end "to violent and armed confrontation." But his officials said the "peaceful" confrontations would continue. The Israelis were worried that Arafat would try to avoid a clear call for peace. Just before 1 p.m. on Thursday, aides of Barak say, he called Arafat to coordinate the simultaneous broadcasts of the two leaders announcing the cease-fire. "In one hour, when we make our announcements, I want to be sure you won't omit anything," Barak said. Arafat responded, "I'm ready." Instead, the bomb on Shomron Street came. Though he didn't make the broad statement Barak had hoped for, Arafat condemned the bombing. That, at least, was welcome news to Barak's office. "We are witnessing a better, more genuine effort by Arafat to really guide his forces to reduce violence," says Sher.
Arafat's aides say he recognizes a need to defuse the situation. He knew Israel's army was itching to punch harder. In fact, the deputy chiefs of staff of Israel's army, military intelligence and domestic intelligence service were pushing for a tougher response after the shooting deaths of three Israeli soldiers on Wednesday. Their plan, vetoed by Barak, included risky, lightning strikes into Palestinian villages by undercover forces dressed as Arabs. Arafat feared that the conflict would spiral into a full-scale war. Sources close to Arafat say he made contingency plans to flee to Yemen or Iraq if Israel tried to retake the Gaza Strip. He knows that his 34,000 lightly armed paramilitaries can't stand up to a real onslaught from Israel, which has standing armed forces of 186,000 and some of the world's most sophisticated weaponry. The mayors of Bethlehem, Beit Jalla and Beit Sahour, three Palestinian towns south of Jerusalem, faxed Arafat's chief of National Security Forces in the West Bank, Tawfik Tirawi, begging him to restrain the gunmen whose sniping drew Israeli retaliation on their citizens.