Horror in Jerusalem

Editorial: Horror in Jerusalem / End the cycle of attack and retaliation

Friday, August 02, 2002

Will this never end? Wednesday's horrendous attack by Hamas terrorists at Jerusalem's Hebrew University was especially hard to bear. The scene of the explosion, a cafeteria, was located in the Frank Sinatra Student Center, near Nancy Reagan Plaza, and five Americans numbered among the seven people killed.

The Hamas July 31 attack is being portrayed as Palestinian retaliation for a one-ton bomb an Israeli F-16 dropped on a house in Gaza City last week. That bomb found its target, Hamas military leader Salah Shehada, but it also killed 14 other Palestinians, including nine children, and wounded 145. The Hebrew University Hamas attack wounded 80, including some Arab students at the university.

Israelis would protest that there is a difference between an attack on students and a political assassination that causes "collateral damage" to innocent civilians. They have a point, but in both cases innocent blood is spilled for the sake of retaliation. It will be surprising if the Israelis do not now retaliate for Hamas' retaliation. But where does this take them?

Where does it take a world that either is -- or is becoming -- hardened to the "eye for an eye" rhythm that marks life for the 10 million people living in the tiny piece of land that comprises Israel, the West Bank and Gaza?

On a local basis, prior to this last round, the Palestinian Authority's interior minister had announced a new security plan, designed to reduce the climate for violence in the Palestinian territories. Under the plan, Israeli forces would gradually withdraw from the Palestinian towns they had reoccupied, and Palestinian Authority police would reassume their duties there, including confiscation of illegal weapons.

The Israelis and Palestinians must pursue that plan, in spite of -- or even because of -- the carnage that has occurred in the meantime.

As far as the outside world is concerned, the key remains the ability of the United Nations, the European Union, the United States and Russia to work with the parties to achieve an agreement that can bring long-term peace to the region.

The basic ingredients are still on the table in the form of Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah's March "land for recognition" proposal, long-standing United Nations resolutions and a determination among at least some Arab and Israeli leaders to end the slaughter.

The next step is still an international conference, in preparation for the end of the summer or early fall. Talking must proceed, in spite of what is happening on the ground.

The world owes it to the children of the region not to accept a conclusion that mutual acts of violence make such talks impossible and that indifference is the only realistic approach to the toll in human life.