JERUSALEM — A week that began with the promise of new Israeli-Palestinian talks exploded in bloodshed Wednesday when twin suicide bombs ripped apart Jerusalem’s Mahane Yehuda.
The colorful open-air market, with its maze of stalls typically filled with fresh produce that draw thousands of Jerusalemites and tourists daily, became the site of a midday slaughter.
The blasts killed at least 15 people, including the two terrorists, who reportedly carried suitcases containing between 11 and 22 pounds of explosives into the heart of the crowded market, between Agrippas and Jaffa roads.
Dressed in black jackets and ties and possibly wearing wigs, the two apparently stationed themselves several dozens of yards away from be possible to make progress in the [peace] process, the Palestinian Authority must first of all carry out its commitments to fight terrorism.”
The Islamic fundamentalist Hamas movement claimed responsibility for the attack, saying in a leaflet that it had come in reprisal for last month’s distribution of posters in Hebron that depicted the prophet Mohammed as a pig.
The leaflet, signed by the military wing of Hamas, Izz a-Din al-Kassam, blamed the Netanyahu government for the escalation of tensions and demanded the release of all Hamas prisoners held by Israel, including the groups co-founder, Sheik Ahmed Yassin.
Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat declared an emergency in the self-rule areas and ordered the arrests of extremists from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which also reportedly took responsibility for the killings.
Though Arafat was quick to telephone Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with his condolences, he received an angry and bitter response about the Palestinian Authority’s failure to rein in terrorists.
Netanyahu referred to solid Israeli evidence linking top Palestinian police officials to planned terror attacks.
He also accused Arafat of failing to arrest suspected terrorists, of freeing convicted terrorists and of failing to smash the “terror infrastructure” maintained by opposition groups and Islamic fundamentalist cells in the self-rule areas.
Some observers linked Wednesday’s terror attack to the imminent intensification of U.S.-led diplomatic activity. But others looked to Israel’s apprehension last week of an escaped Islamic Jihad terrorist.
That was the first time the Israelis had gone back into Palestinian-controlled areas to make such an arrest.
The Netanyahu government had been preparing warily for the arrival of special U.S. envoy Dennis Ross. In an interview published Wednesday by the Israeli daily Ha’aretz — before the terror attack — Netanyahu declared he would not accept “dictates” from Washington.
Observers said the interview was an obvious signal to Washington that Israel would not agree to a freeze in settlement construction, which was the expected centerpiece of the new American initiative to resume the negotiations.
Signals of an imminent burst of activity began emanating from Washington late last week just as Netanyahu confronted a potential crisis prompted by plans to build new Jewish housing in eastern Jerusalem.
Some observers saw a connection between the Clinton administration’s decision to invest — and risk — political prestige in a new bout of regional peace diplomacy and the dispute surrounding Ras al-Amud, the site of the proposed new Jewish neighborhood.
The American proposals were said to include:
*A suspension of new construction by Israel in disputed areas.
That includes both Har Homa, the suburb in southeastern Jerusalem where earth-moving work began in March, triggering the suspension of talks, and at Ras al-Amud, where the Miami-based philanthropist Dr. Irving Moskowitz has obtained permission from the Jerusalem Planning Commission to build residential homes on land he owns.
*Closer security cooperation between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, intended to head off terrorist actions and to ensure that the Palestinian security services are fully committed to the peace process.
In what observers viewed as a gesture by the two parties toward the evolving American diplomatic initiative, Foreign Minister David Levy and Palestinian Planning Minister Nabil Sha’ath announced Monday that two joint committees would resume discussions on issues related to the 1995 Interim Agreement — establishing a safe passage route for Palestinians traveling between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and the opening of a seaport in Gaza.
But Wednesday’s bombing was likely to set back even that modest forward movement.
Israeli spokesmen had hailed the resumption of committee discussions as a breakthrough, while Palestinian officials downplayed them.
The truth is somewhere in the middle: Those discussions are not at the core of the conflict, and do not represent a resolution of the months-long crisis. But the decision by the two sides to try to relaunch the talks signified a growing sense that the Americans mean business and intend to exert pressure on both sides to resume the “hard-core” talks on further redeployment and on final-status issues.
President Clinton’s reaction Wednesday appeared to indicate that, once the dead are buried and the mourning ends, Washington will re-schedule Ross’ mission.
Perhaps, given the new deterioration in Israeli-Palestinian relations caused by the bombing, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright will make the trip instead of Ross to put forward the American proposals.
In fact, Albright cut short her trip to Asia on Wednesday because of the bombing.
While the attack predictably triggered a torrent of hard-line rhetoric from the right of the political spectrum — and from hard-liners within the coalition — the intelligence community was quick to reiterate its own somber warnings that diplomatic deadlock will exacerbate — not moderate — the risk of further violence.