Mideast Road Map Needed

Terrorist attacks in Jerusalem last month killed 26 Israelis and sent the army back into the occupied territories, where it kept Palestinians under virtual house arrest. The soldiers and tanks enforced a relative peace for a few weeks, but an armed attack in a settlement in the occupied West Bank and suicide bombers in Tel Aviv have shattered the tense calm. The terrorism proves again the impossibility of preventing every attack. It underlines the need for a believable path toward a long-term political settlement.

On Tuesday, Palestinian gunmen attacked a bus outside the West Bank enclave of Emmanuel, home to devoutly observant Jews. The armor plating installed on buses there after a similar attack outside Emmanuel last December provided little protection. The terrorists were able to kill eight settlers by throwing grenades into the vehicle and firing through tiny windows and the unarmored roof. On Wednesday, a double suicide bombing in Tel Aviv killed the bombers and three others.

Israel’s defense minister insists that the attacks point up the need for the army to extend its West Bank stay, now nearly four weeks long. The army says it has already prevented many attacks, but military analysts say forces are stretched too thin to stop attacks, chase militants and guard about 200,000 settlers in the occupied territories.

The last four weeks also have deepened the misery of Palestinians who view Israelis as usurpers of their land. About 800,000 Palestinians have lived under nearly around-the-clock curfews, allowed to leave their homes only for several hours every few days to buy supplies. That increases the number of Palestinians who applaud the suicide bombers. Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian Authority again issued ritual denunciations of the bombings but again was unable or unwilling to stop them.

The Bush administration has vowed to have nothing to do with Arafat and has demanded new Palestinian leadership. However, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said this week he would be “more than willing to consider” a ceremonial presidential role for Arafat. A Palestinian Authority aide said Arafat was weighing the appointment of a prime minister to handle the day-to-day affairs of the government after elections scheduled for January. U.S. allies continue to insist that it’s up to the Palestinians, not Washington, to choose Palestinian leaders.

Before Arab foreign ministers met with President Bush on Thursday, Egypt’s top diplomat said Washington needed to demand more of Israel and not just keep hammering the Palestinian Authority. Bush’s June 24 speech called for security for Israel and a change in Palestinian leadership. What it did not offer was a road map to the Palestinian state that the administration said it supported.

Israel does need to be secure and free from terror. But without a more specific outline of their future, Palestinians will continue to believe they are being offered pie in the sky, not a realistic vision for a state of their own.