Israel says it is severing contact with Yasser Arafat, saying that Arafat is ineffectual, unreliable and not worth dealing with. The last straw was the Palestinian ambush of an Israeli settler bus that left ten Israelis dead and 30 wounded. Since November 26, 50 Palestinians and 44 Israelis have died in the violence. Among the Palestinian dead were 18 armed men and ten suicide bombers.
