David Bedein

Asked about how the U.S. could consider arming a group the U.S. itself officially links to a terrorist organization, an American government official stuck by the official position of the U.S. State Department, which is that "the US does not regard the Fatah as a terrorist organization." When this reporter asked the American government official to examine the U.S. State Department Web site in this regard, the U.S. government official said that the official was not familiar with the Web site in this regard, saying only that "Arafat signed a document denouncing violence and terrorism."

"This is a bad development in every way," a high-ranking Israeli political official said Monday. "When the axis of evil gets stronger, Israel should be worried, particularly in light of the effect it could have on the Iranian nuclear question." High-ranking political officials in Jerusalem believe that the absence of a sharp and effective international response to North Korea's test will encourage Iran to speed up its nuclear program.

Despite the fact that Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah declared a "divine victory," his popularity is in a sharp decline. In public opinion polls held over the past few days in Beirut and towns in northern and southern Lebanon, 51 percent said that they support disarming Hezbollah. Forty-nine percent believe that Hezbollah suffered defeat in a war that was "completely illegitimate."

Hezbollah held its victory rally in Beirut, and promised that Nasrallah would be there for his first public appearance since he went underground. Before the rally IDF officers took the view that it would be possible to kill him from the air, but only at the cost of killing dozens of bystanders. This time the political echelon accepted the army's recommendation that an assassination would not be appropriate.After that there was a growing acceptance by the political echelon that the possibility of assassinating Nasrallah should be removed from the agenda and that the hunt for him should be discontinued - at least for the next few months.

--United States Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice is scheduled to meet with Fatah, the parent organization of the Al Aksa Martyrs Brigade, which the U.S. State Department placed on the list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations on March 27, 2002, and which remains on the official list of terrorist organizations on the U.S. government's terror "watch list." --The Palestinian Media Itself Trumpets The Fatah-Aksa Link--Documentation Of Fatah Financing Of Al Aksa Brigades

Farhan Haq's response to Lerner was direct and to the point: that the Secretary-General briefed the U.N. Security Council in a closed meeting that he remains "convinced that the disarming of Hezbollah and other militia should take place through a political process that will lead to the full restoration of the authority of the Government of Lebanon so that there will be no weapons or authority other than its own."