Printer Friendly

Email to A Friend

Friday March 29, 2002

Seder bombing shakes Israel anew Cease-fire, Saudi plan in limbo

From our wire services

This question took on even more urgency Wednesday as a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up in the Park Hotel on the boardwalk of Israel's coastal town of Netanya, killing 19 people and wounding about 130 others who were attending a seder. The incident threatened to derail both the U.S.-led cease-fire effort as well as the Saudi peace plan.

The bombing took place while Arab leaders were discussing the Saudi plan in Beirut at their summit, which ended Thursday.

Under the Saudi plan that was outlined Wednesday, Israel is supposed to give back all land captured in 1967 and recognize a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. Also a new requirement was added -- the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their former homes in Israel.

In return, Israel receives "normal ties" with the Arab world. But Israelis wonder, what does "normal ties" mean?

When Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah first floated his initiative to the New York Times in February, he spoke of the Arab states giving Israel "full normalization" if the Jewish state met his requirements for peace. But since then, Arab nations have been wrangling with that language. Syria and other hardliners considered "full normalization" as meaning open trade, tourism and cultural exchanges -- too great a concession too soon. They pressed instead for the phrasing "comprehensive peace."

Raanan Gissin, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said Abdullah's proposal required further clarification through direct Israeli-Arab contacts, perhaps even another Mideast summit to which Israel would be invited.

"We would like to hear directly from Saudis what they mean by 'normal relations,'" Gissin told the Associated Press. "That's why we suggested contacts or that we send a special envoy so that we could learn more about the end game...Does this mean recognition of the right for a Jewish state in the Middle East?"

Gissin said that while normalization means full relations between two countries, normal relations could be restricted to formal recognition between governments, rather than reconciliation between two peoples.

In his speech, Abdullah said that "having a real peace is the only way to normalize relationships between all the peoples and the only thing that could replace all the destruction."

Israel also took exception to Abdullah's newest requirement -- that the Jewish state allow Palestinian refugees to return to their former homes.

Danny Ayalon, another Sharon adviser, said Wednesday that demands for Israel to recognize the refugees' right to return are "totally unacceptable."

"We bear no responsibility morally for this [the displacement of the refugees]," Ayalon told the Associated Press. "We would like their human plight to be over. All this should be discussed directly and negotiated."

Israel says the return of Palestinians who fled or were driven from their homes during the late 1940s would undermine the state's Jewish nature. Sharon long has rejected the plan's key principle that all occupied Arab land must be returned.

Meanwhile, the Arab summit was somewhat in disarray this week. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat decided not to go to Beirut after Israel refused to guarantee that he would be allowed to return to Ramallah. Israel said it would only make such a guarantee if Arafat signed a cease-fire accord that had been presented by U.S. envoy Gen. Anthony Zinni and if no terror attacks took place during his absence. Arafat declined, saying he would not be rushed into an agreement.

Once Arafat announced he wasn't going, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said he, too, would not participate, in solidarity with the Palestinian leader. Mubarak's absence from the 22-member Arab League summit disappointed the Bush administration since the Egyptian monarch is viewed as one of the rare dependable moderates in the Arab world. Another moderate, Jordanian King Abdullah II, also decided not to attend. Egypt and Jordan are the only two Arab states to have relations with Israel.

Another setback for the summit was the announcement that an Arabic newspaper received an e-mail, allegedly from Osama bin Laden, that condemned the summit and urged the Muslim people to revolt against its leaders.

Reuters reported that Abdel-Bari Atwan, editor of the London-based al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper, said he thought the e-mail was genuine since it resembled language that bin Laden has used in his past communications.

According to Reuters, the e-mail said, "The initiative of Prince Abdullah...is a conspiracy and another display of repeated betrayals."

As the summit was drawing world attention, in the background Israel was dealing with yet another in a long series of suicide bombings.

The Islamic militant group Hamas took responsibility for the Netanya attack in a phone call to the Arab television station Al-Jazeera. But there was no verification of the claim.

The attack threatened to derail the latest U.S. truce mission, which survived two suicide attacks last week. An adviser to Sharon said that while Israel was trying to reach a truce, it would have to reassess its policy in light of the latest incident.

The explosion tore through the ground floor of the hotel, blowing out walls and overturning tables and chairs. Bits of rubble and wires dangled from the ceiling. Some of the wounded were seen staggering out of the lobby, which was plunged into darkness by the explosion.

One man with blood dripping from his face was covered by a blue blanket. An elderly woman, her face also bloodied, sat on the sidewalk, where several people attended to her.

Witnesses said they saw five bodies lined up on the pavement, some of them dismembered, including that of a woman in festive holiday clothes.

Netanya, about 30 miles north of Tel Aviv and 10 miles west of the West Bank town of Tulkarm, has been a frequent target of Palestinian attackers in the past 18 months of violence between Israel and the Palestinians.

On March 9, two Palestinian gunmen tossed grenades and opened fire at a hotel in Netanya, killing a 9-month-old girl and wounding more than 30 other people. Police killed the attackers. The Al-Aksa Brigades, a group linked with Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, claimed responsibility for the earlier attack.

Israeli police had been on high alert for possible attacks during Passover, with more than 10,000 officers deployed in potential trouble spots.

The country's police commissioner, Shlomo Aharonishki, said it was impossible to prevent all attacks. "Even with more policemen and a broader deployment, we cannot block the centers of the cities," he said. "This attack is more evidence of that."

With the attack coming only hours after the Saudi prince's speech on his peace initiative, his words -- some of them directed specifically to Israelis -- suddenly took on a hollow ring.

"Allow me at this point to direct myself to the Israeli people," Abdullah declared, "to say to them that the use of violence, for more than 50 years, has only resulted in more violence and destruction, and that the Israeli people are as far as they have been from security and peace, notwithstanding military superiority and despite efforts to subdue and suppress."

He added, "I would further say to the Israeli people that if their government abandons the policy of force and aggression and embraces true peace, we will not hesitate to accept the right of the Israeli people to live in security with the people of the region."

Did you find this article interesting? Subscribe to our FREE newsletter and you'll be notified each week when "J." goes online. We'll tell you about the most important stories of the week and give you a link to each one.

This page contains a BETA version of Amazon contextual links. They are marked by the dashed underline.  Your purchases support our site. At times they point to items which are not related to the actual link. Please alert us by email if you discover objectionable links.