Rush-Hour Blast Feeds Israeli Fears Over Security

A rush-hour explosion that ripped through the heart of a tourist town on Israel’s northern coast Sunday, leaving four people dead and dozens injured, heightened the sense among Israelis that their security situation is spiraling out of control.

“I saw the smoke rising up to the sky, body parts flying everywhere, people stained by blood and dirt running in every direction, wounded, bloody,” said the owner of an office near the site of the suicide bombing, speaking to Israel Radio.

“I had a horrible feeling of insecurity. My self-confidence was shattered down to zero. It’s amazing what’s happening in the city,” said the man, who declined to give his name.

Hours after the bombing, the ultra-Orthodox Shas Party announced that because of the increasingly perilous security environment, it had signed a coalition agreement with Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon. The hard-line former general, who won a landslide victory over dovish Prime Minister Ehud Barak in an election Feb. 6, is expected to present his government to parliament for its approval by Wednesday.

Sunday’s attack in the seaside town of Netanya, 40 miles from Jerusalem but just 10 miles from the West Bank, was the third there in 16 months. In its wake, an enraged mob attacked Palestinian workers in the city, and pressure mounted on Sharon to make good on his campaign promise to quell the violence.

Sharon blamed the Palestinian Authority for the recent spike in violence aimed at Israelis. But, like others, he urged his countrymen to show restraint.

Along with the suicide bomber, the attack killed two Israeli women, ages 58 and 71, and an 85-year-old Israeli man. Police said the attacker tried to get on a bus, then detonated an explosive charge he was carrying in his bag at an intersection filled with people rushing to jobs or the nearby open-air market on the first day of the Israeli workweek. The same street was the site of another bombing Jan. 1 that injured dozens of people.

The bombing came one day after the militant Islamic movement Hamas pledged to step up attacks inside Israel. No one claimed immediate responsibility for it, but in a leaflet distributed Saturday, Hamas said it had 10 suicide bombers prepared to carry out attacks inside Israel as soon as Sharon formed his government.

A Hamas spokesman said after the bombing that he did not know who had carried it out, but he described it as “self-defense.” Mahmoud Zahar told Israel Radio that “it’s the right of the Palestinians to defend themselves against the aggression of Israel, and without withdrawal of the Israelis from the occupied areas, the bloodshed will continue on both sides.”

Sharon laid blame for the bombing squarely on Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat.

“This attack . . . shows the Palestinian Authority is not taking the required steps,” Sharon told reporters. “We know clearly that forces particularly loyal to Mr. Arafat are taking part in these attacks. It’s clear they are not taking any steps to prevent it.”

In Netanya, people appeared in shock that the town had been targeted once again.

The force of the explosion shattered shop windows and hurled a car into the air. Ambulances and police converged on the scene, picking through the debris to carry the wounded to hospitals. Palestinian workers who tried to hide in the market were set upon and beaten.

Outgoing Public Security Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami said that despite five months of bloody confrontations with the Palestinians, “we must not become a lynching society.”

Matan Vilnai, the minister responsible for Arab affairs in the departing, Labor-led government, warned against the danger of Israelis’ losing self-control if such attacks continue.

“This is a struggle over Israeli society’s mental strength,” Vilnai said. “Those who are mentally stronger, not those who have more tanks and guns, will win.”

Netanya Mayor Miriam Fierberg said by telephone that she understood why some residents had sought revenge.

“People are very angry,” said Fierberg, who arrived on the scene moments after the explosion. “It is very hard to speak when you have seen what I saw--parts of bodies, people screaming.”

Fierberg said she was in the midst of what has become one of the ritual duties of her office--visiting victims of attacks in their hospital beds.

“If this situation continues, if God forbid there is another attack, I am not sure that I can tell people to be strong, to continue to welcome Arabs to this city. My people ask me why Arabs can come here freely and why they don’t know what it means to experience terror, to send children to school and not have them come back.”

In fact, far more Palestinians than Israelis have been killed in the bloody fighting that erupted five months ago and has claimed more than 400 lives, and the Israeli army has for months kept most Palestinians who live in the West Bank and Gaza Strip from entering Israel.

Late Saturday, Israelis shot dead two Palestinians, including a 43-year-old woman who was walking with her family in the West Bank town of Al Birah, and late Sunday a Palestinian gunman was reported killed in a West Bank firefight near Janin. But Israelis have been shaken by the recent upsurge in attacks on Jews both inside Israel and in the territories.

Many Israelis are counting on Sharon, who spent decades fighting the Palestinians as a general and defense minister, to restore order.

On Sunday night, Shas Party spokesman Itzik Sudri said that the party, the third largest in the parliament, or Knesset, had decided to join Sharon’s coalition “due to the security situation.”

Sharon had already signed with the center-left Labor Party and two small hard-right parties but had balked at demands made by Shas. Sudri said the party will have five ministries in the new government, including those of the interior and religious affairs. With Shas on board, Sharon now has at least 64 seats in the 120-member Knesset.

Despite the widespread worries here, however, the newspaper Haaretz reported Sunday that the army has told Sharon that there are few additional measures it can take against the Palestinians.

According to the newspaper, Sharon took umbrage at the army’s assertion last week that it would be impossible to completely stop Palestinian attacks and that the violence will continue for months. The newspaper said that the army recommended continuing not only the closures it has imposed on Palestinian towns but other measures, such as the targeting and killing of Palestinians believed to be planning or carrying out attacks on Israelis.

A spokesman for Sharon confirmed that the prime minister-elect has asked the army “to find solutions.” There are no differences between Sharon and Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Shaul Mofaz over the assessment, said spokesman Raanan Gissin, “but it is only legitimate that the prime minister should review what the army is doing and ask the army to develop programs that will prevent escalation and minimize collective punishment. Certain things will have to be reviewed. . . . Every measure must be scrutinized.”