Military

DATE=6/10/03

TYPE=U-S OPINION ROUNDUP

TITLE=NEW VIOLENCE CHALLENGES "ROAD MAP"

NUMBER=6-12963

BYLINE=Andrew Guthrie

DATELINE=Washington

EDITOR=Assignments

TELEPHONE=619-3335

CONTENT=

INTRO: A weekend attack against Israeli Defense forces by terrorists of three Islamic groups is presenting the first violent challenge to the so-called "Road Map" to peace plan. Fighters from Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades attacked a guard post at the Gaza Strip border Sunday, killing four soldiers and wounding four others. The three attackers were killed, and in a separate incident, another Israeli soldier was killed.

American papers, supportive of this latest peace initiative, are worried, as we hear in this sampling now from ___________ in today's U-S Opinion Roundup.

TEXT: The inclusion of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades is especially significant according to experts, since it represents a harsh repudiation of Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas. Al-Aqsa is an offshoot of his own Fatah political party. As for The New York Times, it ponders the role Palestinian Chairman Yasser Arafat may be playing behind the scenes.

VOICE: Two of the terror groups, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, are militantly Islamic. The third, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, is associated with Fatah, the nationalist movement of Yasser Arafat. The attack came the day after Mr. Arafat belittled the peace summit. The events underline the need to repudiate Mr. Arafat, something Arab and some European governments fail to do, by continuing to meet with him. It is also time to recalculate the divide within Palestinian society.

The road map to peace that is supposed to be guiding Israelis and Palestinians over the next few years requires not just encouraging words but constructive actions. It was gratifying yesterday to note that Ariel Sharon, the Israeli Prime Minister, did not duck his promise to begin dismantling settlement outposts.

TEXT: Similar misgivings to those of The New York Times, appear in The Los Angeles Times.

VOICE: The radical groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad have teamed up before. But Sunday, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, affiliated with Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, joined in, supplying a suicide gunner for the three-man attack. The assault directly challenged Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority's prime minister, who met with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and President Bush last week and pledged to rein in terrorists.

It is uncertain whether he can do that. But his chances would be greater if [Chairman] Arafat demanded that terrorist groups, especially the offshoot of an organization he leads, stop the violence.

TEXT: The Wall Street Journal has this assessment of the latest violence.

VOICE: Israelis were again left burying their dead Sunday, counting the cost of security concessions made to the Palestinian Authority. [The terrorists] had given their reply to last week's peace initiative by President Bush with an attack that killed four Israeli soldiers. Al-Aqsa is part of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, of which Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas is a member. If Mr. Abbas can't control his own party's military wing, can we really hope for him to influence other terrorists groups?

TEXT: The Sun in Baltimore says that while the situation looks very crucial, the Israelis need to give the Palestinians a bit more time to act.

VOICE: Mr. Abbas, whose call for an end to the armed Palestinians struggle angered militants, is pushing ahead with efforts to negotiate a cease-fire with the very groups that staged Sunday's shootings. Israeli leaders want the organizers of suicide bombings and terrorist attacks jailed, not pacified. But they need to give Mr. Abbas and his chief of security, Mohammed Dahlan, time and leeway to develop their own security plan and implement it.

TEXT: In Jacksonville, The Florida Times-Union is upset at the Palestinian response to Sunday's attacks.

VOICE: [Prime Minister] Abbas, incredibly, responded not by arresting members of the terrorist groups but rather by saying there would be no crackdown -- whatsoever, under any circumstances. [Mr.] Abbas said he is determined to avoid a civil war. In other words, [Mr.] Abbas refuses to uphold his end of the deal because he is afraid the terrorists would overthrow him. If the Palestinians have no government capable of reining in its criminal elements -- none, in fact, that even dares to try -- then they have anarchy.

/// OPT ///

TEXT: This view from Memphis, Tennessee in a Commercial Appeal editorial.

VOICE: Three Palestinian terror groups have said "nothing doing" to President Bush's peace initiative in the Middle East. To make their opposition clear, they have killed Israelis again. What will come next? Mahmoud Abbas, the new Palestinian Prime Minister, must stick to his pledge of quelling terrorism. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel should continue to back the Bush plan, which he is so far doing. The political difficulties run deep for [Messers] Abbas and Sharon, but considering the stakes, they should summon up their courage and take some risks.

TEXT: However, Wisconsin's Milwaukee Journal continues to be optimistic, noting:

VOICE: The demolition of illegal Jewish settlements on occupied lands of the West Bank was the best possible response Israel could have made to the most recent outbreak of Palestinian violence. It tells the terrorist gangs that they will not easily succeed in scuttling the "road map" for peace that the United States and its allies have written. Second, it helps the new Palestinian Prime Minister, Mahmoud Abbas, to demonstrate to these gangs that he is not merely a stooge of the Americans.

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TEXT: That concludes this editorial sampling on how Sunday's Palestinian-Israeli violence is hampering the way toward peace.

NEB/ANG/RH