Right-wing Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi was assassinated today in a Jerusalem hotel by a suspected Palestinian gunman, dealing a blow to an already fragile cease-fire between the Israelis and Palestinians.  The Syria-based Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine immediately claimed responsibility, saying the shooting was in retaliation for the death of PFLP leader Mustafa Zibri, who died in an Israeli attack in August.  Zibri was targeted because he had organized a series of car bombings carried out by the PFLP, Israel said.

Zeevi was shot multiple times in the head and neck at close range in the Hyatt Hotel near Palestinian areas in east Jerusalem. While Zeevi was officially the country's tourism minister, he was known for his hard-line stances against the Palestinians, at times calling for the "transfer" of all Arabs and Palestinians from Israel.  In July, he referred to Palestinians living and working illegally in Israel as "lice" and a "cancer."  He was among seven ultranationalist politicians who pulled out of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's  coalition government on Monday in protest of the easing of security restrictions on Palestinians.  Their resignation was to take effect today.

Sharon has called an emergency Cabinet meeting to consider a response to the assassination.  (London Guardian, Oct. 17).

The Palestinian Authority today condemned the assassination, but also called on Israel to halt its policy of killing Palestinians.  "We feel sorry about this assassination.  We reject all forms of political assassinations," said Palestinian Cabinet Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo.  "We want to put an end to this vicious cycle of killings, although Mr. Zeevi had adopted hostile positions and policies against our people.  But we still consider that political assassination should not be the answer," Abed Rabbo said (Reuters/Yahoo! News, Oct. 17).

Sharon said today that Israel holds Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat responsible for the killing.  "The responsibility is Arafat's alone, as someone who has carried out and is carrying out acts of terrorism and never took steps against it," Sharon told a special memorial session of Parliament.  "We will carry out a war to the bitter end against the terrorists, those who help them and those who dispatch them" (Reuters/Yahoo! News II, Oct. 17).  Sharon was reported to have said immediately following the shooting that everything has changed.  "The situation is different today, and will not again be like it was yesterday," he said (CNN.com, Oct. 17).

Sharon had said yesterday that he would accept the creation of a limited Palestinian state, after world leaders including U.S. President George W. Bush in the past several days had endorsed the Palestinian right to a state.  The United States has been urging both sides of the Middle East conflict to tone down hostilities to avoid interference with the creation of a global coalition against terrorism (Mark Lavie, Associated Press/Salon.com, Oct. 16).