NEWS ANALYSIS : Peace Talks, Not Israeli Citizens, Were Target of Blast

The drill is morbidly familiar now: As Israelis and Palestinians plow through painful negotiations to implement their peace accord, Islamic fundamentalists blow themselves up in an Israeli crowd to kill Jews and the chance for peace itself.

The Ramat Gan bus bombing that left six dead and 32 wounded Monday was aimed like a missile at the date, today, that Israel and the Palestinians had set to finish the second phase of their accord. The suicide bomber, and his presumed masters in the organization Hamas, wanted to torpedo the whole peace agreement.

They achieved part of their goal. Negotiations are stalled so the dead may be buried, and angry Israelis are in the streets demonstrating against their government.

But unlike previous attacks, this one has not derailed the Israeli-Palestinian peace process or weakened Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s resolve to continue. After visiting the bloody site of the explosion, Rabin told the nation that terrorists trying to prevent peace should not be rewarded.

“This is a tough moment, but we should not let these crazy and murderous acts stop us from pursuing the process. We must continue and we will continue,” Rabin said.

Later, Rabin’s health minister appeared on television with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat reiterating that talks will continue despite the terrorist attack.

In the past two years, the Israeli government has halted negotiations over similar assaults that have left 131 Israelis dead and has lashed out at Arafat for failing to clamp down on Islamic fundamentalists.

But in recent months, Arafat has arrested scores of Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants and condemned them in secret military courts to long jail terms. His intelligence forces have captured weapons and made headway in breaking up the fundamentalists’ Gaza-based military organizations.

After Monday’s bus bombing, the government closed the Gaza Strip and West Bank as it has after previous attacks, but at the same time it asserted that Arafat’s police work had prevented even more terrorist actions.

“This time,” said Khalil Shikaki, director of the Center for Palestine Research in Nablus, “there is the feeling of a brotherhood of blood: that we’re all fighting the same enemy, and the proper response is not to hurt your partner.”

Ahmed Korei, Arafat’s chief negotiator, predicted that Monday’s tragedy will give a push to the two sides, who had already conceded that they would miss today’s deadline--the latest of many.

Yet the bombing drew intense fire from Rabin’s political enemies--mainly the right-wing Likud Party--who oppose the 1993 peace plan. They object to Palestinian autonomy and to Rabin’s intention to relinquish much of the West Bank territory that Israel captured during the 1967 Middle East War.

These opponents believe that the land, which they call by its biblical names, Judea and Samaria, should remain in the hands of Jews; they fear that Palestinians will use the West Bank as a base to continue attacking Israelis.

“All Arabs are the same, and all want to destroy us,” right-wing Tsomet Party leader Rafael Eitan said on national television after the bombing. “Whoever said this is Hamas, maybe this is Arafat.”

The fear in government circles is that such sentiments may snowball into an opposition strong enough to block the negotiations and implementation of the peace agreements. Rabin is fending off a growing campaign by Likud and Jewish settlers to stop Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank.

Their anger mounted this week when word leaked out of the talks that the Israeli government was about to accept the presence of Palestinian police in the more than 400 Arab villages of the West Bank, including those near Jerusalem and along the “Green Line” with Israel, the territorial demarcation drawn after the 1967 war.

Now, the pictures of Israeli bodies--again victims of Palestinians--are certain to erode support for the peace process, which has always hovered around 50%.

Rabin’s political future lies in the peace accord. Neither he nor Arafat can afford to break off talks. Arafat must keep going if he wants to expand his limited rule beyond the Gaza Strip and Jericho, where he has been in control for a year. And Rabin needs a final agreement with Arafat if he hopes to win elections next year.

“Rabin knows that he will be reelected only if Arafat is able to contain or co-opt Hamas. He really has no choice on this,” said Shikaki. “Both sides have an interest in keeping it going. They are partners.”