Military

DATE=05/21/03

TYPE=U-S OPINION ROUNDUP

TITLE=PALESTINIAN TERROR ATTACKS

NUMBER=6-12938

BYLINE=ANDREW GUTHRIE

DATELINE=WASHINGTON

EDITOR=ASSIGNMENTS

TELEPHONE=619-3335

CONTENT=

INTRO: Reflecting on the latest round of tit-for-tat violence between Israel and the Palestinians, the American press worries President Bush's so-called road map for peace in the Middle East may have hit a dead end. We get a sampling from V-O-A's ____________ in today's U-S Opinion Roundup.

TEXT: Despite the escalation of suicide bombings, U-S newspaper editorialists express determination that the drive for peace must go on. The New York Times puts it this way:

VOICE: Israelis buried the victims of the latest terrorist outrage yesterday [5/20] while Palestinians stayed sealed off in their towns and villages, each side seething with resentment and despair. This may seem like the least likely moment to move forward on Middle East peace. But it is precisely the time for President Bush to increase his involvement.

Unless [Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud] Abbas and his more moderate agenda succeed, radical Muslim forces will hijack the Palestinian national movement, and hopes for a two-state solution could disappear. . Mr. Bush should encourage negotiations by inviting both leaders to the White House. Mr. Sharon postponed his visit because of the attacks, but he should come soon.

TEXT: The Chicago (Illinois) Tribune agrees that to stop trying would be to let the terrorists win.

VOICE: Even in a patch of earth so often drenched with blood, the five suicide bombings . in a span of 48 hours are a cruel shock. It's no secret Palestinian terrorists want to extinguish Israel and, more immediately, snuff out the road map to peace offered by the Bush administration. [Israeli Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon responded to the terror by canceling a trip to Washington. . Yet to bury the peace initiative now would be to give credence to one of the most frustrating, maddening aspects of the Middle East: the terrorists' veto.

TEXT: Florida's Orlando Sentinel also urges President Bush not to give up.

VOICE: Peace between Israelis and Palestinians has never been more vital to U-S interests. The plight of the Palestinians is a rallying point for enemies of America in Iraq and throughout the Middle East, as well as terrorists around the world. President Bush needs to pressure both sides to make . concessions. for Palestinians, a crackdown on terrorism, and for Israelis, a freeze in settlements.

TEXT: On New York's Long Island, Newsday speculates that the bombings are not so much an attack against Israel, as evidence of a power struggle within the Palestinian leadership.

VOICE: .the bombings . were meant to torpedo [Editors: slang for "destroy"] the nascent peace talks, to which Hamas and other rejectionist groups object categorically. And in that, they succeeded. They were also meant to send a signal to [Prime Minister Mahmoud] Abbas and other Palestinian moderates that militants won't accept any accommodation with Israel.

What's not clear, but is almost certainly the case, is that the bombings showed the hidden hand of Yasser Arafat, who is struggling with [Mr.] Abbas for control of the Palestinian Authority. . It may well take a violent internal spasm, if not a civil war, over who controls the Palestinian government before peace talks can resume.

TEXT: Pennsylvania's Allentown Morning Call also appeals to President Bush to "seize [the] moment to keep [the] Middle East on [the] road map."

VOICE: . President Bush is riding a crest as the leader of the most powerful nation on Earth. Before and after the war in Iraq, he committed his administration to finding a real settlement between Israel and the Palestinians. Up until now, he and his advisers were not interested in risking political capital in the Middle East, but now the President has made it a personal promise. He can hardly retreat from it.

TEXT: This concludes the sampling of views on the latest terrorism in and around Israel.

NEB/ANG/MAR