ISRAEL UNDER SIEGE : U.S. Seeks New Ways of Combating Terror

President Clinton on Monday ordered his top foreign policy strategists to devise new ways to combat Middle East terrorism, probably starting with intense diplomatic pressure on Syria, Jordan and the Arab states of the Persian Gulf to stop sheltering and financing the Hamas organization blamed for four recent deadly bombings in Israel.

“We must fight it, and we must fight it with all the resources at our command,” Clinton said in brief, grim remarks delivered on a political trip to Michigan minutes after he learned of the latest attack, a suicide bombing near a Tel Aviv shopping center.

Although Clinton offered no specifics, other administration officials said there are a variety of steps Washington can take to increase the pressure on Hamas, an organization of Islamic militants that, although primarily based in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, draws funds and assistance from Arab governments. Hamas also raises some money in the United States, an activity administration officials vowed to stop.

“These terrorists have to be eliminated root and branch,” State Department spokesman Glyn Davies said. “We will work with other countries in the region to see that this is not a battle fought by the Israelis alone.”

Clinton also said that Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat and his self-governing authority in the Gaza Strip and West Bank “will have to do more” to control Hamas activities in territories under Palestinian control. Arafat has condemned the terrorist attacks but has been unable to stop them.

Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole, campaigning in New York state, said Arafat must put a stop to terrorism--or risk forgoing U.S. help.

“Chairman Arafat needs to do much more to crack down on Palestinian terrorism,” the Senate majority leader from Kansas told a rally on Long Island.

“I believe Congress will also take a hard look at assistance to the Palestinian Authority after these terrorist assaults,” Dole said.

In the short term, the Hamas bombers have succeeded in disrupting Middle East negotiations. After Monday’s blast, Israel put off indefinitely its peace talks with Syria in the United States.

“It is obvious to us that this is not the context within which an effective peace process can be conducted and, for now, the Israeli delegation has been instructed to go back to Israel,” said Itamar Rabinovich, Israel’s ambassador to Washington. U.S. officials expressed confidence that the talks will resume, but they admitted that they had no idea when that might be.

U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher cut a couple of hours off a weeklong trip to Latin America and the Caribbean to return to Washington for a late-afternoon meeting with Defense Secretary William J. Perry, CIA Director John M. Deutch and other officials to discuss the Hamas bombing campaign.

Clinton said his administration will not second-guess any actions the Israeli military and police might take against Hamas, in effect endorsing in advance anything Israel’s tough security services might choose to do.

“We have to stand with the proposition that those who are responsible for this should be held accountable for it,” Clinton said when he was asked if Israel should show restraint in the face of the series of bomb blasts.

Rabinovich said his government wants Washington to pressure Arab governments and the Palestinian Authority in Gaza and the West Bank to do everything possible to interrupt Hamas’ operations. But he said that Israel is prepared to strike at Hamas facilities in other countries if the host governments fail to rein in the group.

In addition to taking diplomatic steps, Perry said the United States will try to provide Israel with additional intelligence about Hamas activities--although it seems clear that the Israeli security services already know more about the group’s activities than the U.S. intelligence community.

Clinton said the Middle East peace process hangs in the balance.

“Once again the enemies of peace have murdered completely innocent Israeli citizens, including children, in their hysterical, determined, fanatic attempt to kill all hope of peace between Israel and Palestinians and others in the Middle East,” Clinton said at a makeshift podium in a truck-maintenance garage in Taylor, Mich., a blue-collar suburb of Detroit.

Kempster reported from Washington and Broder from Taylor. Times staff writers Paul Richter in Washington and Ronald Brownstein in Albany, N.Y., also contributed to this report.