NEW YORK — The terror attacks that greeted the new U.S. peace team in the Middle East pose the question: Can the envoys succeed where their predecessors failed?
A burst of Palestinian terror preceded the arrival on Monday of former Marine Corps Gen. Anthony Zinni and the assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, William Burns — and retaliatory fighting hasn’t stopped since.
Even before the increased level of violence there were strong doubts the new team of envoys could achieve what those before them were unable to do.
Admittedly, the Bush administration doesn’t expect much to be accomplished. “It’s very difficult for the process to get started,” State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Monday. “We would not expect instant results.”
Zinni, who took a helicopter tour of the West Bank with Ariel Sharon, told the Israeli premier he will stay as long as necessary to achieve his task, although others have come before him with the same drive.
Earlier this year, a U.S.-led international panel known as the Mitchell Commission set out a series of confidence-building measures to help end Israeli-Palestinian violence. Officials on both sides welcomed the initiative, then returned to the bloodletting.
Several weeks later, the director of the CIA, George Tenet, arrived with a blueprint for a cease-fire. Officials from both sides agreed to the truce Tenet drew up but the welcoming words were not followed with meaningful implementation.
Zinni has said he hopes to get Israel and the Palestinians to implement the cease-fire steps spelled out by Tenet and the recommendations of the Mitchell Commission.
Before the Palestinian uprising began 14 months ago, there had been no shortage of envoys — from the United States as well as from the European Union, Russia and elsewhere — who sought to prod Israel and the Palestinian Authority into some semblance of peaceful relations.
Now come Zinni and Burns, accompanied by U.S. diplomat Aaron Miller, a veteran member of U.S. Mideast peace efforts.
But Sharon’s dovish foreign minister, Shimon Peres, did not have much optimism for the envoys’ success.
“We will do our utmost for the mission to succeed, but we see very clearly the difficulties ahead,” Peres told reporters.
Peres and others in the peace camp were miffed Monday when Sharon cobbled together a right-wing negotiating team that excluded the foreign minister who shared the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for their role in the interim Oslo peace accords the year before.
Peres did not comment on the matter immediately, but his Labor Party colleagues said Sharon’s exclusion of the left would doom efforts at achieving a cease-fire.
“You are bypassing me and establishing a second Foreign Ministry,” Peres said to Sharon at a Wednesday night security meeting, according to reports.
Sharon reportedly replied that politicians did not handle previous diplomatic talks, and his office said Monday that “Israel attaches supreme importance to achieving a cease-fire.”
Does all this mean that Zinni will fail? Not necessarily.
There are reasons to believe this U.S. mission might yield tangible results where others have failed.
The Bush administration wants solid Arab backing for its war on terror. Ending Israeli-Palestinian violence with a peace accord that the Arab world considers fair would help advance American interests.
Moreover, many have come to see the continuing Israeli-Palestinian conflict as fertile ground for the extremism that breeds terror. With many in the Arab world criticizing U.S. support for Israel — which allegedly comes at the Palestinians’ expense — American officials have an added incentive to get the two sides to end violence.
In addition, Sharon headed to Washington Thursday night to meet with President Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell, and may wish to avoid the kind of public dressing-down that soured his last visit.
Another reason is the losses Israel and the Palestinians already have suffered. More than 700 Palestinians and nearly 200 Israelis have died since the uprising began over a year ago.
Then there are the financial losses: Israeli officials earlier this month declared that the nation is officially in a state of recession. The Palestinian economy has been absolutely decimated.
The cost of the violence provides a strong motivation to reach a cease-fire. There was some evidence of this last week, when Palestinian researchers released a poll indicating growing Palestinian dissatisfaction with the uprising against Israel.
On the other side of the balance sheet, there is one compelling reason to believe that Zinni & Co. will fail like their predecessors — the violence has shown no sign of letting up.
Indeed, hours before the envoys arrived Monday, a Palestinian suicide bomber detonated his explosives at the Erez Crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip, lightly wounding two Israeli soldiers. And from there the violence only increased.
In the most serious attack of the week, two Palestinian gunmen from the West Bank city of Jenin entered Israel Tuesday just hours after Israeli troops withdrew in response to American pressure. The gunmen opened fire on civilians in the northern Israeli city of Afula, killing two Israelis and wounding dozens more.
Jenin was the last of the Palestinian cities that Israel soldiers left after occupying seven Palestinian cities Oct. 18, a day after Palestinian terrorists killed Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze’evi
Later in the day Tuesday, an Israeli woman was killed in a Palestinian shooting attack on a Gaza road. Israeli soldiers at a nearby post shot and killed the Palestinian gunman, who had opened fire on passing vehicles, wounding two other Israelis. In other violence that day, Palestinian gunmen wounded a foreign worker in an Israeli car in the West Bank and fired at workers on the Trans-Israel Highway, which is located inside Israel but near Palestinian-controlled areas.
On Wednesday, Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian near a crossing point into Israel, the Associated Press reported Palestinian security forces as claiming. The Israel Defense Force said two Palestinians apparently trying to infiltrate into Israel to carry out a suicide attack were shot and wounded, but no one was killed.
Sharon received news of the Afula attack while he was meeting with Zinni. One of the gunmen was from Palestinian Authority Arafat’s Fatah movement.
Sharon told Zinni that Arafat had established “a coalition of terror” with Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, the PLO, the Palestinian militias and the Force 17 presidential guard.
Following the deadly Palestinian attacks, Arafat had to engage in damage control Wednesday, when he met with Zinni in the West Bank city of Ramallah for a traditional Ramadan after-sundown meal.
While neither envoy nor Arafat would answer reporters’ questions regarding the meeting, Arafat reportedly said he was “committed to peace as a strategic option” and wanted a Palestinian state that would live “next to the state of Israel.”
After renewing his calls for international observers, the Palestinian leader nonetheless reiterated his belief that the al-Aksa intifada is Israel’s fault, citing an “escalation of Israeli attacks, assassinations, siege and closures.”
Later on Wednesday, Zinni called for an end to the violence, saying “both sides have suffered far too much.”
“We need to end the fighting and get back on track toward peace,” the U.S. mediator added.
Shortly thereafter, Reuters reported Palestinian gunmen opened fire on the Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo — regarded by Palestinians as a settlement and a frequent flashpoint in the current conflict — from the nearby West Bank town of Beit Jala.
Much of this week’s violence might be attributed to Israel’s targeting of a Hamas leader over the weekend and Hamas’ promise of revenge.
Last Friday, Israel killed Hamas leader Mahmoud Abu Hanoud in a helicopter attack. Hanoud had topped Israel’s most-wanted list for allegedly planning terror attacks that killed dozens of Israelis.
Israel charged that Hanoud was behind the June suicide bombing outside the Dolphinarium disco in Tel Aviv and another suicide attack in August at the Sbarro’s pizzeria in Jerusalem.
Hanoud’s death followed an incident that created more Palestinian anger and prompted an Israeli investigation.
On Nov. 22, five children from one Palestinian family were killed in an explosion in Gaza. The children, who included two sets of brothers, ranged in age from 6 to 14.
On Monday, Israeli officials announced that soldiers had placed a bomb in a fortified position that Palestinian gunmen frequently used to fire on Israelis. It exploded when the children happened upon the bomb and began playing with it.
The army called the incident “serious and very regrettable,” but faces criticism for placing the bomb in a place where children pass by.