PRIME Minister Ehud Barak's 48-hour ultimatum to PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, in our view, has done more damage to the peace process in the Middle East than the recent outbreak of bloody violence in the Gaza Strip. We cannot help the feeling that Israel's internal politics, and not its commitment to lasting peace in the region, has actuated Mr Barak to issue the deadline. With his government rather precariously placed in a largely hostile Knesset, he cannot simply afford any move to reprimand opposition leader Ariel Sharon for instigating the violence in the first place, can he? In the wake of failed peace talks and amidst growing frustration and anger among the Palestinians over the fluidity of the situation, Mr Sharon's visit to the Old City on September 28 was primed to incite trouble and it did. In all fairness, Mr Sharon committed the first sin and Mr Barak the second, in his bid to pass the buck on to Chairman Arafat.

The Palestinians are hard done by in every possible way. They are the ones who have so far counted some 80 corpses of the kith and kin. They are the ones who have taken shelter in rubbles as the Israeli troops demolish one building after another. Ironically still, they are the ones blamed for the skirmishes. Their only solace came in the form of a UN resolution that condemned "excessive use of force against the Palestinians. resulting in injury and loss of human life" and implicitly blamed Mr Sharon for provoking the weeklong riot in the Gaza Strip. Here. too. abstention of US on the ground that the resolution was "onesided' and "did not reflect the fact Israelis had been killed and wounded", however, provided the thorn in the flesh.

Anyway, lasting peace in the region should be the focus and such flare-ups should not derail the talks initiated and sustained by the US. An AFP news item quoting an Israeli commander has it that the Israelis and the Palestinians have agreed to immediately stop fighting. If this is what has really happened then the leaders on both sides must now start repairing the damage done, instead of finger pointing. They must realise that peace in the ME would serve the interests of both sides.