1. Five armed terrorists drove into the Indian Parliament premises in New Delhi and murdered seven persons injuring 17 others before security personnel killed them. Their car looked like a police vehicle and had security clearance stickers for the Parliament House. The terrorists were armed with automatic rifles, pistols, grenades and explosives. No Member of Parliament was injured in the attack. India has announced that the Pakistan secret service and Kashmiri terrorist movements connected with Pakistan were involved.

2. A combination of the Sharon Government's carefully calibrated but increasingly tough military measures against terrorists and the PLO with Arafat's lack of credibility and growing Western pressures on the Palestinian Authority is defeating the al-Aqsa intifada. Arafat issued orders to stop suicide attacks on Israeli targets, but a day later praised the suicide bombers and said that Israel has no right to exist. His desire to arrest Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists is very doubtful and he has not even offered to arrest or disarm the PLO's illegal Tanzim militia, which has continued its terrorist attacks on Jews. So the situation at the time of writing remains fluid. Western readiness to back the Israeli Left and its program of major territorial concessions may prove counterproductive, as there is no significant popular support for this program among Israeli Jews, an overwhelming majority of whom now believe that borders such as offered by Ehud Barak at Camp David offer Israel no security — with or without a "peace treaty" the PLO has no intention to honor. If the Labor Party leaves the coalition, an election will produce a victory for the Right-wing parties. Agreement on a list led by Sharon with Natanyahu as No.2 and candidate for Foreign Minister is by far the best option for the Likud, as an almost immediate general election will maximize its gains.

3. Under its new leader, Benyamin Ben-Eliezer, Israel's Labor Party has announced its intention to leave the National Unity Government and force a general election, which it hopes will take place in the fall, enabling it to reorganize and utilize US and EU pressures for its defeatist positions. These hopes may prove vain. Sharon may decide to have the election much sooner. He has also a realistic option of dismissing the Labor ministers and forming a new Government without them. Moreover, President Bush may have second thoughts about creating a terrorist PLO state.