Fri, Jun. 13, 2003

Force begets force. The killing has become ritualized. Yesterday the Israelis killed a Hamas militant in Gaza in revenge for a bus bombing in Jerusalem on Wednesday. The bus bombing was revenge for Israeli attacks on two Hamas leaders on Tuesday. Tit for tat, an eye for an eye, but the violence goes on.

Forget about President Bush's recent peace mission to Aqaba, Jordan, and the hopes that a new peace process might be starting. Hamas thinks terror will break the will of Israelis, while Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon insists he can wipe out Hamas by assassination.

Both are very, very wrong.

On Wednesday, an army of Israeli police and rescue workers picked through the charred skeleton of a red-and-white city bus on a main downtown Jerusalem street. The bus shelter, where a terrorist disguised as an ultra-Orthodox Jew had boarded, was charred and tilted. A rescue worker in white suit and plastic booties perched on top, collecting body parts.

By the time I arrived, the last ambulances were speeding away with the 60 wounded, but most of the 17 dead, including the bomber, were laid out perpendicular to the sidewalk and already encased in plastic bags. I held my breath because one man was still uncovered and seemed to be moving. Then I realized the workers were searching for identification, and I watched them slowly pull a bag down his body and tie the ends around his feet.

Most disconcerting was how well-choreographed the response was. There have been so many of these suicide-bombing horrors that everyone knows his role. The plastic bags for the bodies and bits come on large rolls on wheels. A cleaner with a wide broom sweeps up the shattered glass, walking by the feet of the dead with barely a glance.

Did the suicide bomber bring Jerusalem to a halt? Not at all. Down Jaffa Road a couple of blocks, stores are open for business. So are restaurants and an Internet café. And, in another ritual response, young religious students gather near the bus carcass to call for revenge against Arabs, and wave signs saying "Bush go to hell with your Road Map," referring to the peace plan.

All Hamas has achieved is to strengthen the militants of the Israeli right wing.

Switch scenes to Gaza. Yesterday afternoon, the ambulances were back to back in Shifa Hospital in Gaza, bringing in 30 casualties - the innocent bystanders when an Israeli Apache helicopter fired rockets at a white Opel, killing a Hamas militant, his pregnant wife, and their small daughter. There is pandemonium in the emergency room as relatives, armed gunmen, and frantic doctors compete for space.

Thirteen-year-old Subhi Mashallah was hit by shrapnel as he was flying his kite near where the Opel exploded. Khalid Abu Sido, 14, in a yellow T-shirt with lettering that says "American classic," was hit below the knee as he sold oranges from a cart. His uncle Saleh Abu Sido, who was hit near his cement store, lies with bloody legs on a rickety gurney. "The dogs and the animals have better lives than us," he says. "We are very tired."

Do Palestinians blame Hamas for the continued violence? No way. At a raucous funeral march for militants and civilian bystanders killed in the Tuesday attacks, Palestinians universally blamed Sharon for their suffering. Meantime, Hamas courted more support from funeral vans fitted out with sound systems chanting, "Your greatest achievement in life is to die as a martyr." Young boys wearing green headbands sat on top of the vans waving huge green flags for Hamas and black flags for Islamic Jihad.

Can Sharon crush Hamas by assassinating its top leaders? Unlikely. It has a surfeit of volunteers ready to kill themselves.

The only way out of this cycle is to persuade the Palestinian public that Hamas violence is blocking a process that offers a real state. The new Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, was trying to prod Hamas to a cease-fire, but this week's Israeli attacks have put an end to his efforts.

Instead, Israel will target Hamas leaders, and Hamas says it will now target Israeli politicians as well as civilians. And the killing will not end.

© 2003 Philadelphia Inquirer and wire service sources.