CAIRO - Police fired tear gas and water cannons to disperse demonstrators
headed toward the Israeli Embassy in Cairo as Arabs took to the streets for a
fourth straight day of anti-Israeli protests on Monday, keeping up the pressure
on their governments to get tougher with Israel.

A group of artists and intellectuals had called for a march from Cairo
University to the nearby Israeli Embassy, in a heavily guarded office building
along the Nile. Hundreds of people who responded to the call began running
toward the embassy, breaking through one line of riot police. Police responded
with tear gas and water cannons, confining protesters to a spot near the
campus.

In the southern town of Sohag, thousands of university students and teachers
joined hands in burning Israeli flags and asking their leaders to "take serious
steps against Israel."

At least four protests broke out across Jordan. At the University of Jordan,
anti-riot police used batons to prevent some 500 angry demonstrators from
leaving their campus. In Zarqa, 27 kilometers northeast of Amman, about 3,000
people chanted "Death to Israel" and called for jihad, or holy war, against the
Jewish state.

On the heels Sunday's reports that Jordan was considering unspecified measures
in its relations with Israel, a Jordanian official said that his country wanted
to maintain ties with Israel so as to influence its policy toward the
Palestinians.

"Neither Jordan nor the Palestinians would gain from emotional reactions," said
the official, speaking to a group of reporters on condition he not be
identified further. "What purpose would it serve to break ties with Israel or
stop dealing with it?" he said. He added that maintaining open channels would
help influence Israel to make peace with the Palestinians.

In the Ein el-Hilweh refugee camps on the outskirts of the southern Lebanese
city of Sidon, hundreds of people demonstrated chanting, "We want to blow up
embassies if Arafat becomes a martyr. We want to hijack planes if Arafat
becomes a martyr."

In Alexandria, Egypt, about 10,000 people gathered in support of the
Palestinians. A similar number attended a demonstration in Bangladesh, while
Arab diplomats and their families protested outside the Palestinian Embassy in
Beijing.

Palestinian Planning Minister Nabil Shaath on Sunday rejected U.S. criticism
that Yasser Arafat can do more to stop Palestinian suicide attacks. "President
Arafat is a hostage. The Palestinian people in Ramallah are hostages of Israeli
forces, and the American president speaks of Israel's right to defend itself
... This is very astonishing. We have not seen this before," Shaath said after
talks with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher.

Lebanese President Emile Lahoud issued a statement Monday condemning what he
called international silence over the suffering of the Palestinians. "Time has
come for Israel to know that the policy of imposing security by force will not
succeed in making the Palestinian people abandon their rights," Lahoud said.

Jordan's King Abdullah II on Sunday called on the United Nations to "provide
protection to the Palestinian people."

The president of the United Arab Emirates, Sheik Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan,
called on the United States to act to implement Saturday's U.N. Security
Council resolution that said Israel should immediately withdraw from
Palestinian towns, including Ramallah, the official Emirates News Agency
reported. Washington supported the resolution, but called on Arafat to do more
to quell violence.

In an interview in Monday's pan-Arab newspaper Al Hayat, Sheik Mohammed bin
Rashid Al Maktoum, crown prince of Dubai and Emirates defense minister, accused
the United States of letting the situation get out of hand. He also criticized
Palestinian suicide bomb attacks directed at civilians, but said: "How can the
Palestinian leadership prevent this when Israel besieges it, destroys its
security establishments and continues the policy of assassination? Violence
breed violence."

In Iraq, President Saddam Hussein urged Arab countries to adopt "economic
measures" against Israel and its supporters. He did not elaborate, but the
ruling Baath party in a statement called on the Arabs to use oil as a weapon
against Israel, apparently by cutting off supplies to the West in order to
force Western powers to pressure Israel.

"If oil is not used today as a weapon in the battle to enhance the honor and
dignity of our [Arab] nation and our religion and to liberate our land and holy
places against Zionism and America, it will be a curse."
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