ISRAEL-U.S>: Bombings concentrate U.S. attention

By Jim Lobe Reprint | | Print |

Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Mar 4 1996 (IPS) - Just a few weeks ago, the Mideast topic of the month here was whether the Israeli-Arab peace process had reached the point of no return.

Some major hurdles had been overcome. Israel had successfully withdrawn its troops from Gaza and virtually all of the major cities and towns of the West Bank. Yassir Arafat had been formally elected president of the Palestinian Authority (PA), and international donors had pledged more than enough money to cover the PA’s 1996 spending plans.

U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher had successfully convened informal talks between Syria and Israel at an old plantation house just outside Washington, and, while agreement still seemed far off, the consensus position was that peace was no longer a matter of if, but rather of when.

Finally, and perhaps most important, Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres, capitalising on the assassination of his predecessor, Yitzhak Rabin, was far ahead of the right-wing Likud Party’s flag-bearer, Benjamin Netanyahu, in the polls and seemed certain to win re-election in May with a mandate to make peace with Damascus and accelerate peace with Arafat.

“We’re now at a point of no return,” proclaimed Geoffrey Kemp in early February to a gathering of Mideast specialists at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace February 1. Kemp was the chief Mideast expert on the National Security Council of former President Ronald Reagan.

But he added one caveat: “So long as there are …no massive terrorist incidents in the next four months, it will be extremely difficult for Israel to reoccupy Gaza and the West Bank.”

In the last ten days, that caveat has asserted itself with a vengeance. Bombers from the militant Islamic movement, Hamas, have claimed at least 62 lives in four blasts, the latest Monday morning when a lone suicide-bomber blew himself up just outside Tel Aviv’s largest shopping centre.

The blast followed a declaration of “total war” against Hamas by the normally dovish Peres, who last week suddenly found himself trailing in the polls, after another suicide bomber killed himself and at least 18 others aboard a Jerusalem bus Sunday morning.

Seeing President Bill Clinton’s greatest foreign-policy success totter at the edge of the disaster, U.S. officials have reacted not only with the ritual denunciations of terror directed against Israel, but also with genuine anger.

Christopher cut short a week-long tour of Latin America to fly directly here from Trinidad. Top national-security officials were expected to meet at the White House by mid-day to conduct what the State Department called a “high-level review to find ways to intensify our efforts to combat terror.”

“I want to express my deep anger at the news of this latest bombing in Israel,” Clinton declared at the beginning of a major campaign speech in Detroit. He referred to the forces behind the bombings as “people …really literally willing to die just keep the division and the hatred and violence going.”

He also echoed Peres. Asked if the Israelis should exercise restraint in responding to the last two bombings, Clinton demurred, insisting “we have to stand with the proposition that those who are resopnsible for this should be held accountable.”

And while praising Arafat for being committed to peace, he warned that “Mr. Arafat will have to do more” to crack down on Hamas, a point on which there was considerable agreement here Monday.

“The Palestinian elections on January 20 were a referendum on the very peace process that Hamas opposes,” said Gail Pressberg of Americans for Peace Now, which for years urged Israel to begin talks with Arafat. “They want to get through bombs what they couldn’t get through the peace process,” she said.

“Arafat must now go in and arrest the leaders who were responsible,” said Pressberg. She said the Israeli government had given Arafat a list of their names Sunday. “He can’t negotiate with these groups now,” she said.

Until just last weekend, Pressberg and others had voiced sympathy for Arafat’s efforts to divide Hamas by coopting Hamas’ political leadership into a loyal opposition while isolating its military hierarchy.

This strategy was strongly endorsed in a New York Times column Friday by Ori Nir, Palestinian correspondent for the Israeli daily Haaretz. He warned Peres against measures, including sealing off Palestinian territories and delaying withdrawal from Hebron, that would effectively “corner Arafat” and deny him flexibility in dealing with Hamas.

“I might have agreed with him on Friday, but not now,” Kemp said Monday. “This is a war and has to be fought like one,” he said. He described Arafat as “the real loser” in these bombing attacks, noting that progress in implementing the peace agreement may now come to a screeching halt “unless Arafat’s actions in cracking down on Hamas are so demonstrably effective that even the Israelis give him credit.”

Pressberg agreed with Kemp that if Arafat gets results, confidence in Peres can be restored, but that, for now, the Israeli leader was in deep trouble with an electorate that has been stunned by the carnage.

In the immedate term, Peres will have to impose greater physical separation between Israel and the Palestinians, Kemp said, adding that such a policy is much closer to that pursued by Rabin.

“Once you talk about separation, you’re essentially setting up the conditions for either a Palestinian state or a Palestinian ghetto. The political debate in Israel has to be about which is more likely to serve Israel’s security interests,” he said.

“The ghetto idea — Netanyahu’s — is an absolute recipe for continued violence,” he added. “Short of cracking some heads, I don’t he has any real plan. He has to present an argument that Likud can stop this more effectively than Peres. But everything we know about this kind of terrorism makes that doubtful. How do you screen a pedestrian for bombs?”