Military

DATE=01/07/03

TYPE=U-S OPINION ROUNDUP

TITLE=ISRAEL BOMBINGS

NUMBER=6-12775

BYLINE=ANDREW GUTHRIE

DATELINE=WASHINGTON

EDITOR=ASSIGNMENTS

TELEPHONE=619-3335

CONTENT=

INTRO: A pair of powerful explosions triggered by two suicide bombers ripped through a working class Tel Aviv, Israel, neighborhood earlier this week. At least 22 people were killed and one hundred more injured. It was the most serious terrorist attack by Palestinians in many months, and has set off a flurry of anger and frustration in the United States press.

V-O-A's ___________ joins us now with a sampling in today's U-S Opinion Roundup.

TEXT: The bombs blew up Sunday just seconds apart; one on a crowded pedestrian mall and the second near a bus stop on a nearby street. They were especially heinous devices, filled with shrapnel so as to cause as much wounding as possible. The explosions come just weeks before a national election in Israel and in the midst of attempts by Egypt to broker a halt to violence by militant Palestinian groups.

The U-S press responds with editorials condemning this latest act in the seeming endless cycle of violence. Boston's Christian Science Monitor calls the attacks "despicable" and points out how they will probably hurt the Palestinian cause:

VOICE: For one, Mr. Arafat was counting on a conference in London next week to showcase reforms within his government . Instead, Israel will now bar Palestinian leaders from attending. . Also possibly ruined was a meeting this week in Cairo . at which [Chairman] Arafat's Fatah movement hoped to persuade Hamas, the militant Islamic organization, to accept a cease-fire within Israel proper.

. A third political casualty for [Mr.] Arafat will likely be a greater victory for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Israel's general election . January 28. Even more Israelis will rally behind his hard-line policies . over those of the dovish Labor party.

TEXT: In Baltimore, The Sun points out that even though this attack gains front page headlines, the low-level intensity of the warfare had never really waned.

VOICE: Israelis were saying yesterday that the gory double suicide bombing . does not really mark a significant turning point in the endless . conflict. The relative quiet that had descended over Israel the last few months was illusory. Dozens of would-be terrorists have been trying to get through to their targets; it's just that Israeli security forces had caught them all, until Sunday.

And even so, the killings had continued - - a few at a time, barely newsworthy. Since December first, for instance, 69 Palestinians have been killed by Israelis. For two months, though, the world's attention was focused on Iraq, and, increasingly, North Korea. Now there's a big dent . in the consciousness of places like Washington . or there should be - - because the suicide bombers . certainly provided a reminder that nothing and no one in the Middle East can be taken for granted.

TEXT: For its part, New York's Daily News takes a hard line in support of Israel.

VOICE: Terrorism, be it from Al Qaida or Islamic Jihad or the Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades, is a security problem, not a political one. And security problems get dealt with by the police and military, not diplomats. After Sunday's twin suicide bombings . Israel is justified in taking any tough measures it chooses. Palestinians can expect Israel's grip on the West Bank and Gaza to tighten.

Every terrorist must be pursued, every lead followed. So long as Arab terrorism persists, there's no other option. . Recently, terrorist groups promised to stop attacks inside Israel. Now, Islamic Jihad and Al Aksa are both eagerly claiming authorship of Sunday's slaughter. The Palestinians haven't given up mass murder. And their promises have, yet again, proved worthless.

TEXT: New England's Boston Globe disagrees with at least part of the Daily News argument, and while calling the bombings "a crime of the most heartless kind . intended to kill and rip apart civilians," The Globe adds:

VOICE: It is the mission of political leaders to seek a means to overcome the nihilism of such tribal vendettas. At the moment the terrorists struck, meetings and conferences were in process or planned to stop the spiral of violence and vengeance. . The latest terrorist crime must not be allowed to keep the peace forces in both camps from returning to the difficult but inescapable work of forging an agreement for peaceful coexistence between Israel and a Palestinian state.

TEXT: In Georgia, The Augusta Chronicle sounds both furious and frustrated.

VOICE: Just when you start to think after six weeks of inactivity that suicide bombings may be losing their appeal as Palestinians' preferred weapon of war against Israel, suddenly new bomb attacks shatter hope, not only for peace, but [also] for sanity in that turbulent part of the world.

The bombings were also a slap in the face to Egypt, which had been trying to persuade Hamas and Islamic Jihad to stop attacks on Israeli civilians, at least until after Israel's January 28 general election.

TEXT: The views of The Augusta Chronicle bring to a close this editorial sampling of comment on the latest Palestinian terrorist attacks in Israel.

NEB/ANG/MAR