JERUSALEM — In the half-month since he arrived in the Middle East to broker an Israeli-Palestinian cease-fire, U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni has learned the taste of failure.
Since his arrival on Nov. 26, the square-jawed former Marine Corps general has managed to bring the two sides together for a series of talks. So far, however, the meetings have borne bitter fruit.
On Tuesday night, Zinni pressed the two sides to agree to a 48-hour cease-fire. Within hours, Palestinian terrorists launched attacks in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
At least 10 Israelis were killed Wednesday when Palestinian gunmen opened fire on a bus in the West Bank. Some 30 others were wounded, several critically, after the gunmen threw a grenades and raked the bus with gunfire, which continued after rescue forces came on the scene.
The bus was traveling from Bnei Brak via Tel Aviv to Immanuel, a fervently religious settlement located near Kalkilya.
Shortly afterward, two Palestinian suicide bombers in the Gaza Strip killed only themselves when they blew themselves up near a Jewish settlement.
The bombers set off their explosives on a main highway near Neveh Dekalim. At least four people in two cars were wounded in the attack.
Israel retaliated by firing on Palestinian positions in the West Bank and Gaza.
The United States condemned the bus attack, which “underscores the need” for Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat “to take every step possible to reduce the violence,” White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.
The Palestinian Authority rejected all blame for Wednesday’s attacks, although Reuters reported the al-Aksa Martyrs Brigade, an organization linked to Arafat’s Fatah faction, claimed responsibility. In a statement, the Palestinian Authority said Israeli policies caused the attacks.
Later on Wednesday, however, Reuters also reported Arafat ordered the closing of Hamas and Islamic Jihad offices.
In other violence earlier that day, Israeli helicopters killed four Palestinian gunmen in Gaza.
Responding to what Israel called fire from a “terrorist squad,” the helicopters opened morning fire on targets near Khan Yunis. Palestinian sources accused Israel of assassinating Brigade members.
Following the attacks Wednesday, Israeli political analysts described Zinni’s mission as a complete failure so far.
Earlier in the week, after a series of particularly acrimonious talks involving Israeli and Palestinian officials, Zinni reportedly threatened to leave the region if both sides did not get serious about the quest for peace, but U.S. officials denied that Zinni made the threat.
On Tuesday, Israeli soldiers killed two Palestinians who tried to run a roadblock near the West Bank city of Tulkarm. According to an Israel Defense Force investigation into the incident, the men were driving a car without license plates that had been stolen from the home of an IDF officer.
In the Gaza Strip, Israeli helicopters fired on a building of Arafat’s Force 17 security service in retaliation for a mortar attack on a Jewish settlement that injured two children.
Whether by coincidence or not, the violence Zinni sought to defuse only increased when he came to the region. Within days of his arrival, there was the deadly weekend of suicide bombings in Jerusalem and Haifa that killed 26 and left hundreds wounded.