New York Times
The suicide bombings that rocked Israel over the weekend bring the Mideast conflict once again to the brink of conflagration. The current crisis is even more dangerous than previous flash points because these attacks suggest an internal rebellion among Palestinians that raises troubling questions about Yasir Arafat's capacity for continued leadership. The weekend's events threaten to undercut the Bush administration's most ambitious Mideast peace initiative just as it was getting off the ground. They also come at a sensitive moment in the war against terrorism, whose ultimate success depends on the cooperation of several Arab and Muslim nations. Nothing would play into Osama bin Laden's hands better than an unchecked escalation of violence in the Mideast.
The coordinated attacks in Jerusalem and Haifa, claimed by Hamas, aimed at killing as many Israelis as possible. They left at least 25 people dead, many of them teenagers, and hundreds wounded. They also represent a direct challenge to Mr. Arafat. A decisive moment is now at hand in which Mr. Arafat has to assert his authority with actions, not merely words. He must, as Washington demands, break up the terrorist organizations led by Hamas and Islamic Jihad by arresting leaders involved in planning violence and by seizing illegally held arms. Yesterday's declaration of a state of emergency in all Palestinian-administered territories and accompanying warnings that all groups violating Mr. Arafat's cease-fire orders should consider themselves outlawed are welcome. Yet unless these words are followed by decisive actions, they will be meaningless. ...
Understandably, Israeli emotions are now at fever pitch. Mr. Sharon, who cut short a visit to the United States to respond to the bombings, will be under considerable pressure to escalate the violence. Yet even in the face of this latest trauma, Israel must not lose sight of the long-term need for a negotiated end to the overall conflict. Mr. Sharon must make sure that any new military measures are designed to enhance security while leaving open the possibility of eventually resuming peace talks. For that to be a realistic option, Mr. Arafat will have to demonstrate that the weekend's events have finally shocked him into decisive and sustained action against terrorism.
Chicago Tribune
By whatever twisted logic a suicide bomber comes to believe the taking of Israeli lives will advance the Palestinian cause, his calculation is grievously flawed. Sympathy for the Palestinians? What happened over the weekend in Israel was terrorism committed on behalf of the Palestinians. It was premeditated murder on behalf of the Palestinians.
The suicide attacks in Jerusalem and Haifa will advance no cause. They will harden hearts against Islamic extremist leaders who would send young men to kill themselves on a fool's mission. They will underscore that any peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority will have to be structured to protect the security of Israel. ...
But the responsibility falls first on Palestinian leaders to respond to this terrorism with more than their usual unconvincing expressions of regret. Palestinian leaders have to prove they can create and maintain a civil society that reacts swiftly and harshly against terrorism committed on its behalf. The Palestinian leaders have to identify who crafted, financed and organized these attacks, and put them out of business.
That is believed to be an increasingly difficult mission for Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, his popularity waning, his control over the various factions of Palestinian politics eroding. A spokesman for Arafat decried the terrorist attacks, but it was condemnation offered with the usual caveat. "While we condemn those acts, we must all of us call on Israel to end its brutal occupation of the Palestinian people," said Hassan Abdel Rahman, the Palestinian representative to the U.S.
No, this is not the time to equate occupation with terrorism. Any attempt to use the weekend horrors to promote the Palestinian cause must fall on deaf ears. This was savagery. The Palestinian authorities have one responsibility: Police your own people.
Washington Post
The horrific terrorist attacks by Palestinian extremists against Israelis over the weekend were as terrible as any the country has seen. The deliberate massacre of children who gathered on a pedestrian mall Saturday night in Jerusalem, as well as of the Israeli Jews and Arabs who sat side-by-side yesterday morning on a Haifa bus, offered gratuitous and grisly proof of the implacable inhumanity of terrorism, and the necessity of concerted action by civilized countries to eradicate it. The vicious attacks also perpetuated one of the most destructive patterns in Israeli-Arab affairs: Almost every time an effort is made to advance peace negotiations, extremists respond with crimes meant to shock and freeze the process -- and more often than not, their primitive strategy succeeds. In this case the Palestinian terrorist groups clearly intended to destroy the mission of U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni, who arrived in the region a week ago to press home a cease-fire plan that depended on a crackdown on the extremists by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. This time, the terrorists should not be allowed to achieve their aims. ...
For a leader who has survived for decades by ducking at fateful moments, such decisive action may not be possible. But Mr. Arafat must be given a chance -- if only because all the alternatives are so much worse, both for the Palestinians and for Israel. Mr. Sharon has consistently replied to Palestinian terrorism with measures aimed at Mr. Arafat -- and now members of his cabinet are once again calling for the destruction of the Palestinian Authority. But the past few months have demonstrated that tactics such as the invasion of Palestinian cities and the assassination of Palestinian militants, while weakening Mr. Arafat, do not stop terrorism or make Israelis more secure. Of course, nothing Mr. Sharon has done can justify or even explain the deliberate explosion of nails into as many teenagers as possible. Hamas has no defense. Israel does, however, and is entitled to act -- and act decisively. The challenge for Mr. Sharon and Mr. Zinni is to find the formula for action, militarily as well as politically, that most likely will defeat and destroy those terrorists.
Washington Times
Just days after President Bush's envoy, retired Gen. Anthony Zinni, arrived in the Middle East in the hope of restarting peace negotiations, Yasser Arafat and Hamas provided more grisly illustrations of what peace means to them.
At around 11:30 p.m. Saturday night, two Palestinian terrorists detonated suicide bombs at opposite ends of the crowded Ben Yehuda pedestrian mall in downtown Jerusalem. The explosives, packed with nails and screws, left large chunks of flesh and severed limbs strewn along the walkway. In an instant, a pleasant evening had once again been transformed into one of death and terror for Israelis, many of them high-school and college students. "I saw body parts," a witness, who arrived at the scene minutes later to tend to the wounded, told reporters. "It smelled like everything was burning. I held one teenaged guy whose body was torn apart. He was just a boy, maybe 18, and he was missing one of his arms." But the horrors had only begun. About 20 minutes later, a car bomb exploded roughly one block away, injuring more people, as police and rescue vehicles arrived on the scene. The three bombs in Jerusalem killed at least 14 people and wounded 170 more.
But the Saturday night carnage was only the beginning of what turned out to be one of the bloodiest days since the current "peace process" began on September 13, 1993, when President Clinton, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Mr. Arafat signed the Oslo I agreement at the White House. ...
The Bush administration would be well-advised to follow the advice of former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: Let Israel give Mr. Arafat a choice, just as Washington did with the Taliban. The Taliban was told to choose between keeping control of Afghanistan and harboring Osama bin Laden. When it chose bin Laden, the United States went to war to depose the regime. Like Mullah Omar in Afghanistan, Mr. Arafat also should be compelled to choose between remaining in the terrorism-by-proxy business and staying in power. If he opts to stay in the terror business, Israel would be well within its rights to make Mr. Arafat pay the ultimate price.
Miami Herald
The weekend terror attacks in Israel should put to rest any doubt that there can be a different response to different acts of terrorism. Terrorism is terrorism, no matter where it occurs, whether in New York, London, Jerusalem or Haifa. It should be attacked with the same intensity and focus of purpose, lest the terrorists succeed in their vile cause: to cripple the will and destroy the spirit of innocent people.
If that message hasn't been absolutely clear in recent U.S. policy toward Israel because of America's preoccupation with anti-terrorism war in Afghanistan, then there can be no doubt of its applicability now.
Mr. Arafat had begun arresting extremists before the attacks, and yesterday, he declared a state of emergency in the territories. No doubt, the weekend attacks challenged his authority. But he can and should do much more, including turning over terrorists to Israelis authorities and promoting a spirit of reconciliation among Palestinians toward Israel. In daily communications with Palestinians, Mr. Arafat can deliver unequivocal messages urging nonviolence.
The Bush administration should take steps to clarify its position on Israel and terrorism. In a Sept. 20 speech, Mr. Bush declared: ``Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists.'' The president should apply the same principle to terrorists in Israel. Mr. Bush's recent caution to Israel to tone down its campaign against terrorists lest it detract from the Afghan war is confusing. Mr. Bush articulated a better position in his speech: The United States, Israel and the world must present a united front against terrorism, wherever it occurs.
(Compiled by United Press International)
