21.  Palestinians braced for an expected Israeli military response.

22.  Palestinians reacted with a week of violence that lead to Israeli responses that have included, at times, helicopter gunships and sniper fire.

23.  Powell first sent him to the region last November and he was greeted with a furious wave of Palestinian attacks and a crushing Israeli response.

24.  Recent polls suggest the intefadeh and the Israeli military response have hardened public opinion on both sides of the struggle.

25.  Renewed confrontations would only invite a strong Israeli military response and create more suffering among Palestinian civilians.

26.  Privately, senior administration officials described the Israeli response to the bombing of the bus, in which two Israeli adults were killed, as disproportionate and excessive.

27.  Since the bombing and the tough Israeli response, Hamas and Palestinian National Authority President Yasser Arafat have set aside their differences to join in demonstrations and unity meetings.

28.  So, too, did the Israeli response.

29.  Still, the intensity of the Israeli response brought to the surface a simmering tension between Israel and the Jewish diaspora that emerges during times of crisis.

30.  Such actions would undoubtedly draw a massive Israeli response and launch a new spiral of combat.