Deadly message
Wednesday's double bombings in a Jerusalem marketplace present the peace process in the Middle East with its most serious challenge. The bombing may have made negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians impossible. For it to succeed would be a tragic recognition of the power of terrorism.
The attack was the most serious since bombings by the militant Islamic group Hamas in February and March 1996. It was the first bombing since March in Tel Aviv where three Israeli women and the suicide bomber were killed.
Although there was no immediate claim of responsibility, the reason for the bombing, and for its timing, is all too obvious.
On Monday, Israel and the Palestinians announced a resumption of peace talks, which had been stalled since March because of a dispute over a construction site in East Jerusalem. For those intent on derailing peace talks at any cost, recourse to violence is a knee-jerk reaction against a target likely to maximize the loss of life and injuries.
The blasts came at a particularly crucial moment. A meeting in Jerusalem at the beginning of the week between Israel's foreign minister and the chief Palestinian negotiator produced agreement to reconvene joint committees to hammer out details on implementing Palestinian autonomy accords. This was only a tentative start. The Palestinian negotiator made it plain that the deadlock on proceeding with final talks still remained.
Each side is deeply suspicious of the other, and acutely aware of the need to carry along hard-line supporters. Israel's government may simply wonder what it is going to get out of negotiations, which are bitterly opposed by some of its most fervent supporters. As for the Palestinians, yesterday's bombs delivered their deadly message.
The whole environment for progress toward peace was already horribly polluted. Israel's hard line, and its militant settlers, has been balanced by corruption and ineptitude in Yasser Arafat's self-rule authority. The effort needed to prevent bombers achieving their end still has to be made, but there can be no illusions about the gulf which politicians on both sides will have to cross if the hope of peace is not dashed, yet again.
-- The South China Morning Post