A deadly deadlock

The shootout during rush hour last Tuesday in Jerusalem's main shopping area by a Palestinian gunman wounding at least 20 Israelis illustrates in a poignant way the deadly deadlock that is now gripping the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The basic premise underlying Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's tough policy is of course that at a certain point the Palestinian leadership under Yasser Arafat would be so weakened that it would come meekly to the negotiation table. The assumption of course is that Sharon's government could then practically assert the terms of agreement.

Last Tuesday's horrible incident in Jerusalem shows that violence begets violence. Hannan Ben-Naim, one of the Israeli police officers who killed the Palestinian gunman, reported that he was a young man. This means that Prime Minister Sharon's policy of violence has only managed to mobilize the younger generation of Palestinians to engage in counter-violence, even if it means a suicidal operation.

Whether at this stage Yasser Arafat is already powerless to control the extremist Palestinian groups and to manage the inflamed Palestinian youths is by now an academic point. Most probably he is assuming that despite his "irrelevance", at the end of the day the Israelis have to deal with him.

In the meantime, all we can do is to watch with sadness the spiraling violence that heightens the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We only wonder how long -- despite the attempts that are being undertaken by the United Nations, the United States, the European Union and to a certain extent by Egypt and Jordan to find a negotiated settlement -- this senseless killing will last.