Military

DATE=03/28/02

TYPE=U-S OPINION ROUNDUP

TITLE=PASSOVER BOMBING

NUMBER=6-125623

BYLINE=ANDREW GUTHRIE

DATELINE=WASHINGTON

INTERNET=YES

EDITOR=ASSIGNMENTS

TELEPHONE=619-3335

CONTENT=

INTRO: The latest Palestinian suicide bombing at a Passover Seder that killed at least 20 mostly elderly Israelis, has cast a pall over the latest peace initiatives in the Middle East. American newspapers are unusually outspoken in their criticism of the attack, coming as it does at the beginning of the Jewish religious holiday, and while Arab leaders are discussing a Saudi peace proposal. We get a sampling of early U-S comment now from ____________ in today's U-S Opinion Roundup.

TEXT: A man walked into a hotel dining room where a Seder was about to begin in the seaside town of Netanya and set off explosives attached to his body. It was a particularly big bomb. The blast killed at least 20 people and injured more than one hundred others. The U-S press is especially angry at the timing of the blast, at a time when Saudi Arabia is formally advancing its land-for-peace plan at the Arab Summit in Beirut.

In Pennsylvania, Allentown's Morning Call asks:

VOICE: What is the solution to the never ending violence.? As Jews celebrated Passover and Arab leaders convened for a summit in Beirut, Lebanon, to hear a peace proposal, a suicide bomber walked into a Seder meal in an Israeli hotel, killing [20] innocent people and wounding more than 100. . Is peace possible despite such hatred? The bombing seems purposely intended to distract from the peace proposal offered at the summit by Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah. It was just a bloody exclamation point to other distractions that blunted Prince Abdullah's call for "normal relations' between Israel and its Arab neighbors.

TEXT: In the nation's capital, The Washington Times writes:

VOICE: In the dimly lit rubble of the hotel, it was again clear that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was incapable of stopping the violence. Meanwhile, the Arab League's proposed communiqué from the . Beirut summit . showed that the violence brought against Israeli civilians is blessed by most of the Arab League.

TEXT: The Detroit [Michigan] News says that President George Bush must stop offering what it calls " carefully measured heartbreak and outrage" and fill in the blank that Yasser Arafat Must Stop the killing or what? That is, what action will the United States take if it continues.

VOICE: On Wednesday, Israelis were cleaning up the debris and counting the bodies after the bombing ... What was the Bush administration doing? Blindly embracing the potential of a wispy peace proposal placed on the table by Saudi crown Prince Abdullah . in Beirut. .Israel's response . is a promise of harsh and sweeping measures to bring Palestinian terrorism under control.

. This time, [Mr.] Bush should at the very least remain silent while Israel does what must be done. . The Palestinian Authority .deserves to be treated as the Taleban was treated in Afghanistan. It's time [Mr.] Bush made [Chairman] Arafat understand that.

TEXT: Comments from an unusually long Detroit News editorial. Turning to the Chicago Tribune, the paper takes its theme from the Jewish liturgy for Passover.

VOICE: For Jews and Israelis gathering at Passover Seders this week, one line in the Haggadah, the Seder liturgy, has a chilling resonance. "In every generation someone rises up to destroy us," it reads. As Jews the world over gathered in prayer Wednesday night to commemorate their biblical Exodus from slavery in Egypt, their thoughts turned again to Israel's agony.

. After 18 months of bloody conflict with Palestinians . yet another one was hardly surprising. But the extent of the death toll, the timing and even the venue - - the heart of Israel on the Mediterranean coast - - was shocking. It came as Israelis were celebrating the start of the week-long Passover holiday . The Bush administration has praised the [Saudi Arabian] land-for-peace plan, which Arab states were debating Wednesday at the summit.

It is an opportunity for peace. Yet given events like the Netanya bombing, many Israelis wonder why they should give any more land for peace. On Passover, there is no deliverance, no peace, only more slaughter.

TEXT: Excerpts from an editorial in the Chicago Tribune.

Elsewhere in the Middle West, Missouri's Saint Louis Post-Dispatch writes:

VOICE: Even before the bombing, it was hard to imagine serious peace talks occurring in the current tumult of the Middle East. Palestinians believe they are gaining ground with terrorism. . The United States is laying the groundwork for an attack on Iraq. Iran is shipping weapons to the Palestinians. In that setting, the Saudi peace plan offered a flicker of hope - - one that seemed all but extinguished after the Passover bombing.

TEXT: In Pennsylvania, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says of the Saudi peace proposal formally unveiled at the Beirut summit only hours before the bomber struck:

VOICE: Even though its full potential for resolving the now 54-year-old conflict between the Arabs and . Israelis was undercut by continued violence and unfortunate moves on both sides, this initiative by the most religiously correct and richest of the Arab states is still significant.

TEXT: In South Carolina, Charleston's Post and Courier is saddened and shocked by the latest attack, and how it may again, harm the latest peace initiative.

VOICE: Despite the absence of Yasser Arafat and the leaders of Egypt and Jordan at the Arab summit in Beirut, the Saudi peace proposal was formally launched yesterday [3-27]. But the horrendous suicide bombing at an Israeli seaside resort . may render Saudi Prince Abdullah's efforts irrelevant.

The inevitable Israeli retaliation will merely escalate the violence and lead to another cycle of Palestinian terrorism. Both Palestinian Authority President Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon have become trapped by events that are spinning out of control. It is sad that the unprecedented Saudi initiative, offering recognition of Israel in return for withdrawal from Arab lands, has come so late. It is hard to see how negotiations can be re-started in the midst of continuing carnage.

TEXT: On that disconsolate note from the historic port of Charleston, South Carolina, and the Post and Courier, we conclude this editorial sampling of early reaction to the Passover bombing in Israel.

NEB/ANG/SAB