Despite Terrorism, Rabin Vows to Press Peace Search : Israel: Prime minister sees no sure way to halt attacks for now. Sunday’s bombing leaves many in despair.

Although Israel has defeated all the Arab armies it has fought, it remains so painfully vulnerable to terrorism that, following the weekend suicide bombing which killed 19, many Israelis despaired Monday of ever seeing peace.

“Many are asking me, ‘Did you bring peace, or did you bring terror?’ ” Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin said in a television address as he defended his controversial efforts to make peace with the Palestinians. “I understand the question. The peace process is not easy. . . . Yet we will continue the search for peace. There is no other alternative.”

But the terrorist attacks will continue, Rabin acknowledged, for in the immediate future there is no sure way to halt them. “Peace is the only solution, and that is in the long run,” he added.

Israel is caught in a political-military dilemma for which Rabin admitted he has no quick or easy solution. The attacks by members of radical Islamic groups are exacting a heavy toll on Israel, politically as well as in human terms.

Demands are growing that Rabin abandon plans for Palestinian self-rule in the occupied West Bank. There are demands as well that he send Israel’s army and police in full force against the Muslim militants.

Yet a harsh retaliation, such as suspension of the ongoing negotiations with the Palestine Liberation Organization, sweeping arrests of Islamic leaders or a prolonged closure of the Palestinian territories, only weakens the PLO and jeopardizes the peace process.

“When you are involved in peace negotiations, it is very difficult to use all the forces you have,” said Gerald M. Steinberg, a military analyst at Bar Ilan University in Tel Aviv. “To halt this wave of terrorism, Israel would have to go into Palestinian villages and towns on what were known in Vietnam as ‘search-and-destroy’ operations. . . . Negotiations would be a casualty.”

Rabin said his approach, as before, will be to pursue the negotiations with the PLO, demanding that it take tougher measures against the radicals, and to combat terrorism without regard for the negotiations.

Rabin boldly vowed to strike back. “No border will stop us from getting at you,” he told the radicals. “We will finish you, we will annihilate you, we will destroy you. And we shall win.”

Israel’s strategy for such a victory is far from certain. It is facing adversaries who are willing to die for their cause.

“Tragically, short of a complete separation of the two peoples, Israelis and Palestinians, there is no sure defense against a terrorist who is willing to die in order to kill Israelis,” said Shlomo Gazit, retired chief of military intelligence and one of the country’s leading strategic analysts. “That is the terrible truth of it.”

According to intelligence specialists, the logic of the current terror campaign runs this way:

* As the PLO negotiates with Israel on assuming control of the West Bank as well as the Gaza Strip and on holding elections there, Islamic opposition groups will try even harder to upset the process, fearing they will be cut out of the new political order and wanting to demonstrate their strength.

* The success of recent attacks, particularly the bombing of the military assembly point Sunday near Netanya, will draw more ideologically driven volunteers for further suicide missions in a deadly spiral. The latest bombs used military explosives, an innovation, and thus caused more casualties.

* The militant Islamic groups are highly compartmentalized, operate autonomously and have proved very difficult for Israeli security police to penetrate or even gather operational intelligence on.

* Israel’s borders with the West Bank are porous despite intensive patrols, checkpoints and roadblocks. The Gaza Strip can be sealed effectively, but only with greater efforts. In Israel itself, personal security measures are no longer part of daily life; many Israelis carry guns, but few check for potential bombs in public places.

Bruce Hoffman, a former RAND Corp. analyst now at St. Andrew’s University in Scotland, noted that the Muslim radicals have an unlimited number of potential targets within Israel, that they have learned to adjust their tactics and almost always had an element of surprise in their attacks.

“They have beat every army they have fought, but there is no easy way to defeat terrorism,” Hoffman said. “There is no front line, and the operational area comprises the whole rear area of the country, adding to the Israeli sense of total vulnerability.”

Each successful operation, he continued, enabled the militants to recruit more volunteers. “Religion gives violence a sacramental character, and zealotry makes these bomb-carrying volunteers almost unstoppable,” he added.

The government Monday ordered new measures to combat the attacks.

In addition to the full closure of the West Bank and Gaza Strip so the Palestinians cannot travel into Israel, the army and police began sweeps in Israel for workers who remain here overnight and arrested more than 500. In the West Bank, patrols were stepped up, and troops set up more checkpoints on roads leading from the region and to the Gaza Strip.

The Cabinet authorized the police and the General Security Service, better known as Shin Bet, to hire additional personnel despite budget cutbacks.

And Shin Bet won Cabinet approval to continue its “tough interrogations” in which its agents are permitted to “go beyond reasonable moderate pressure” in questioning members of such fundamentalist groups as Hamas and Islamic Jihad if they believe an attack is imminent.

The head of Shin Bet said that in the three months since his interrogators had been using such methods, described as amounting to licensed torture by international human rights groups, they had prevented five terrorist attacks, including the planned abduction of an Israeli soldier.

Foreign Minister Shimon Peres told a parliamentary committee that the situation requires “Draconian methods” but acknowledged that “any success in combatting this terrorism depends, first of all, on intelligence,” and there Israel had serious problems.

“To penetrate these groups, you have to be at the mosque five times a day for prayer, live an Islamic life and commit your life to the cause,” a senior intelligence official here said. “We are about 15 years too late for all this.”