JERUSALEM : Harsh Spotlight

This week will mark a key test for Israel’s hope to put behind it the international controversy over last month’s killings of 20 Palestinians at the Temple Mount.

The government has offered to accept an envoy from U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar to talk about the situation of Palestinians in general, but not Jerusalem in particular. The U.N. official has yet to take up the offer, and the Palestine Liberation Organization is pushing for a full-blown U.N. conference probing Israel’s performance against Geneva Convention standards for safeguarding civilians under occupation.

Meanwhile, the potential for more violence is considered high in the wake of both the Temple Mount shootings and last week’s assassination in New York of anti-Arab Rabbi Meir Kahane. An Egyptian-born gunman is being held in the killing.