Palestinian MPs approve new Cabinet

Palestinians on Wednesday finally approved a new government and Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie vowed to seek a ceasefire with Israel to revive a...

Palestinians on Wednesday finally approved a new government and Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie vowed to seek a ceasefire with Israel to revive a US-backed peace plan. In the debate, President Yasser Arafat adopted a conciliatory tone rarely heard by his people.

‘‘We do not deny the right of the Israelis to live in security with the Palestinian people in their own independent state,’’ he said. Israel rebuffed him.

Deputies voted 48-13 to confirm Qurie’s 24-member Cabinet after two months of paralysing power struggles which, along with intractable violence, stalled the US ‘‘road map’’ for a Palestinian state in Israeli-occupied territory by 2005. Arafat’s retention of dominating powers is seen by Washington as a serious obstacle to diplomacy.

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The 74-year-old former guerrilla leader accused Israel of ‘‘a criminal war’’ of incursions and blockades to crush his people’s aspirations, then switched gear and extended an olive branch.

‘‘The time has come for us to get out of this spiral, this destructive war, that will not bring security to you or us.’’ Israel immediately rejected Arafat’s gesture.

‘‘You cannot hold an olive branch in one hand and a ticking bomb in the other,’’ said Dore Gold, an adviser to PM Ariel Sharon, referring to hundreds of suicide attacks.

Qurie said he wanted to end ‘‘chaos’’ wrought both by anti-road map militant factions and rolling Israeli Army thrusts into Palestinian cities. Israel ignored a short-lived unilateral truce by militants during the summer. (Reuters)

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