Ploughing on regardless

Israel's suicide-bombing

Jul 14th 2005 TEL AVIV
From The Economist print edition

Suicide-bombers try to derail the Gaza pullout

THE fragile five-month ceasefire between Israelis and Palestinians was broken again on July 12th, when a Palestinian suicide-bomber blew himself up near a shopping mall in the Israeli beach town of Netanya, killing five people and injuring about 18 others. For Israelis, who have recently been getting accustomed to a relatively quiet life, the bombing served as a bleak reminder of the four-year Palestinian intifada, as the country readies itself for the evacuation of Jewish settlements from the Gaza strip and the northern West Bank, scheduled to begin in mid-August.

That the ceasefire has held at all—deaths on both sides are down compared with the same period last year—is thanks to the forbearance of groups like Hamas, the main Islamic militant group, which calculates that Palestinians want a period of calm, and to international pressure in anticipation of the Gaza withdrawal. Responsibility for the Netanya bombing was claimed by Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), a smaller group. The PIJ often says it is retaliating for Israeli violations of the ceasefire. Some people, such as Martin Indyk, a former American ambassador to Israel, think it is trying to disrupt the ceasefire under the orders, and with the material backing, of Iran.

Whatever the cause, the bombing has once more put the leadership of Israel's prime minister, Ariel Sharon, and his Palestinian counterpart, President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), to the test. Both have failed to engage in a meaningful dialogue since Mr Abbas replaced Yasser Arafat earlier this year. Their meeting last month was a disaster, as the two lectured each other—and their respective home audiences—rather than engaging in substantive negotiations. Pledges made to each other remain mostly unfulfilled.

Israel's response to the deaths in Netanya was, on July 13th, to send troops back into the Palestinian border town of Tulkarm, 15 kilometres (9 miles) east of Netanya, considered to be the home of the PIJ's most wanted militants. Tulkarm had been handed over to Palestinian security control only four months before. By the same afternoon, two Palestinians had been killed and several others arrested. On July 14th, Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian militant in another West Bank town, Nablus. Israeli officials repeated their threats to resume targeted assassinations of PIJ operatives. Even Shimon Peres, Israel's doveish deputy prime minister, called for a “heavy hand” against the PIJ. But the relatively few deaths in Netanya spared Mr Sharon from political pressure to retaliate more fiercely or even put the disengagement on hold.
But Palestinian attacks are not even Mr Sharon's main concern. He is facing opposition from his former allies in the Israeli right wing, who blame him for “rewarding terror” by his planned Gaza withdrawal.

Shortly before the bombing, he had gathered together Israel's security chiefs to assess the domestic situation. They had heard reports about hundreds of protesters flowing into the Gaza settlements, aiming to reinforce their inhabitants and complicate the pull-out. Violence by settlers holed up in a beachfront hotel earlier this month shocked mainstream Israelis, but gave a taster of what the army might be up against. Consequently, on July 13th the prime minister signed a decree blocking all Israelis who do not live in the Gaza strip from entering. This caused a fury amongst the protesters, who threatened to block (not for the first time) the main Israeli highways in retaliation.

Mr Abbas, however, faces a more considerable challenge. Squeezed between Israeli pressure and Palestinian insubordination, he favours compromise and persuasion of militant groups over confrontation. The bombing once again showed that a small group like the PIJ can defy his leadership, thus reinforcing Israel's assertion that he is a hopeless weakling. Hearing the news from Netanya, Mr Abbas—a long-time critic of terror—condemned the attack as “stupid” and pledged to arrest its perpetrators. But the Palestinians' deputy prime minister, Nabil Shaath, also condemned the Israeli army's action in re-taking Tulkarm as a “new violation of all agreements”.

Once again, Mr Abbas called for a meeting of Palestinian groups, apparently hoping that the consensus among them would bring pressure on the PIJ to hold its fire at least until the Israelis leave Gaza. Few on either side, though, took his declarations seriously. Senior Israeli officials went as far as foreseeing his imminent collapse, noting that American pressure to “strengthen Abu Mazen” has dwindled recently. Claims that Mr Abbas is not doing enough against terror have followed every previous violation of the ceasefire, and have looked designed to weaken him. But the claim that he is about to fall looks rather like wishful thinking.

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