THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, March 7, 1996 TAG: 9603070010
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines
Trading territory for peace was ever a gamble for Israel. Swapping the Sinai for peace with Egypt paid off in a big way by making it impractical for the rest of its Arab neighbors to wage conventional war against Israel.
Israel's courageous agreement to yield control in stages over occupied West Bank territories and Gaza in exchange for peace with the Palestinians was problematic. In recent days, the suicide bomb attacks of Hamas terrorists have made it more so.
Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin - later assassinated by an Israeli extremist - sealed a peace bargain with Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat on the White House lawn. But the question then, as now, was whether Chairman Arafat could control the bitter-enders swimming in the sea of Palestinians he represents. And whether he would control them if he could. The PLO leader is a slippery character who still holds out hope for the disappearance of the Jewish state.
The murderous successes of Hamas suicide bombers boost the credibility of those Israelis - most notably Likud party leader Benjamin Netanyahu - who have objected all along to conceding anything to the Palestinians in return for mere promises of peace with security and freedom. Israeli foes of peace are entitled to say, ``We told you so,'' however unhelpful Likud and its allies have been to the peace search. It's understandable that masses of Israelis now concur. Chairman Arafat has not neutralized the terrorists.
Prime Minister Shimon Peres' Labor party had seemed assured of retaining power in the parliamentary elections scheduled for May 29. Now Likud's prospects have brightened. Israeli-Syrian peace talks have been suspended indefinitely. All progress toward arranging enduring peace between Arab and Jew has stopped dead in its tracks.
Prime Minister Peres moved forcefully to prevent further terrorism by arresting the alleged mastermind of three of the bombings, razing the residences of suicide bombers' families, confining thousands of Palestinians to their homes and demanding that Chairman Arafat crack down on the crazies as he should have done months ago.
President Clinton condemned the suicide bombings, rushed bomb-detection equipment and anti-terrorist experts to Israel and the Palestinian Authority and called upon Arab states to join a multinational campaign to isolate the terrorists.
Victory over terrorism is in the best interest of both Israelis and Palestinians. The latter, by recently voting overwhelmingly for Chairman Arafat to head the Palestinian Authority, signaled a yearning to get on with their lives in peace. The widespread unhappiness among Palestinians over the suicide bombings is reason to hope that the terrorists' war against peace will fail.
If it doesn't fail, the Middle East is in danger of returning to the familiar bloody stalemate. That would be lamentable. Israelis have to protect themselves, but can play into their enemies' hands by reacting too harshly. But they can hardly do otherwise unless Arafat proves, once and for all, that he means business by bringing Hamas to account. He must no longer play both ends against the middle. by CNB