JERUSALEM, May 23 -- Israeli leaders reacted with angry words and warnings Monday to Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat's likening of the Gaza-Jericho agreement to a short-lived pact between the prophet Mohammed and idol-worshipping opponents.
'The restoration of confidence is now a necessary condition for the continuation of the (peace) process,' said Environment Minister Yossi Sarid. 'The onus of proof is now upon Arafat and him alone.'
But they stopped short of saying peace arrangements would be derailed amid an uproar in Israel over the comparison, made during a May 10 speech at a Johannesburg mosque in which Arafat also called for a jihad (sacred battle) to liberate Jerusalem.
'Words can produce violence and raise expectations, but the real test is not words but actions,' Police Minister Moshe Shahal told a stormy session of Israel's parliament, the Knesset. 'Arafat's leadership will be measured by his commitment to agreements ... to all the clauses of the agreement.'
State-run Israel Radio reported that Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin said he would request from Arafat a written confirmation of his commitment to the Gaza-Jericho agreement, but Rabin's spokesman could not be reached for confirmation.
Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, speaking from Washington in an interview with Israel Radio, indicated he was not much discouraged by Arafat's remarks. 'You have to distinguish between what people declare and what people do,' he said.
Shahal, during his Knesset remarks, warned Arafat that Israel would not remain committed to the self-rule pact for the occupied territories if the PLO violates it. 'Every violation of the agreement will turn the situation back to what it was previously. If there is a substantial violation of the agreement, it will not remain confined to one side.'
On a tape released Sunday at a gathering of right-wing Israeli opponents of the Gaza-Jericho agreement, Arafat can be heard saying: 'I do not view this agreement as more than the agreement signed by our prophet Mohammed with the Kureish.' Transcripts of the speech were printed in several Israeli newspapers.
Arafat was referring to a pact negotiated with the Kuraish tribe in the year 628 B.C., two years before Mohammed's army took over Mecca from the Kuraish.
Israeli historians differ over whether Mohammed violated the agreement or acted after an infringement from the other side. Ahmed Tibi, an adviser to Arafat, said, 'After two years Kuraish attacked an ally of Mohammed, and violated the agreement. Every 7-year-old Muslim boy knows this.'
Whatever may have happened, the analogy has embarassed Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's government by adding fuel to hard-line arguments that the PLO intends to disregard peace arrangements once its strategic position is stronger.
'You do not have the ability, strength or honesty to admit that you have made a terrible mistake,' Likud legislator Ehud Olmert told the Knesset.
Last week Arafat clarified a call for a jihad (holy battle) to liberate Jerusalem made in the same speech, saying he meant a peaceful struggle to ensure prayer rights there for Muslims, Christians and Jews.
