"We see again today the severe nature of the things the state of Israel is facing," Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told a group of young Jews visiting Israel for the first time. "All attempts to reach a cease-fire, even today, are failing due to the Palestinian leadership that continues to support, fund and initiate terror."

"The Palestinian Authority has condemned these operations," Ghassan Khatib, Arafat's labor minister, told al-Jazeera in a live interview from Cairo. "Sharon escalated the policy of killing, especially in the past few days during which the dialogue in Cairo aimed at finding a way out of the ongoing cycle of violence became more serious."

Unbelievable. Just unbelievable. It's amazing how things in Israel can continue to get worse and worse and worse and worse -- there's always a new low, always a new way for it to degenerate. But then again, there's always the same old people to blame for whatever new horrible thing has happened.