Attacks Persist Despite Talk of Cease-Fire

Faced with a relentless suicide bombing campaign that has demoralized its citizens and emboldened Palestinian militants, Israel said Sunday that it will keep attacking Palestinian-held territories while the United States makes a new effort to secure a cease-fire.

Vice President Dick Cheney and U.S. envoy Anthony C. Zinni, due to arrive here separately in a few days, will find more talk of war than of peace, and widespread skepticism that the Bush administration can break the cycle of violence.

“Sending Zinni is like sending aspirin to treat cancer,” said Shlomo Ben-Ami, a former Israeli foreign minister. “His mission will not produce results, because when you have this state of war and you have this volcano erupting, you cannot negotiate a cease-fire unless it is in the context of a political solution.”

Traumatized Israelis buried more of their dead Sunday, and right-wing ministers chastised Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for dropping his demand for seven days of quiet before a cease-fire can be reached. They said he should instead retake the West Bank and Gaza Strip and oust the Palestinian Authority. Palestinians buried their own dead from Israel’s ongoing military assault, and militants vowed more strikes inside Israel.

Sharon defended his decision to immediately implement a cease-fire, if the U.S. can broker one.

Speaking to army veterans, he also said he intends to keep his promise to lift travel restrictions Israel imposed on Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat after Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi was assassinated in October.

Israel has confined Arafat to the West Bank city of Ramallah, saying he would be allowed freedom of movement only after all the men suspected of killing Zeevi were arrested. The Palestinian Authority announced Saturday that it had arrested the last suspect.

“I insisted on this, and I did not let go, and finally, after all this pressure, the people were arrested,” Sharon said.

But Sharon also told his audience that “there is a heavy battle in progress” with the Palestinians. “I want to tell you that this battle will continue,” he said. “I also made this clear to our friends, the Americans. . . . I have also made it clear to them that we will continue our military operations.”

The former general said he contacted the Bush administration last week as the violence intensified to say that Israel was prepared to immediately implement a cease-fire if one could be negotiated. It was an abrupt about-face from Sharon’s previous insistence that he would never negotiate until attacks stopped completely.

But the prime minister said he will not engage in political talks about a final settlement with the Palestinians until all attacks halt.

Infrastructure Minister Avigdor Lieberman said it was a “grave mistake” for Sharon to abandon the demand for seven days of quiet. “It means that we are not truly capable of withstanding any sort of pressure, that we have no red lines.” Lieberman announced after the Cabinet session that he will pull his tiny National Union-Israel Beitenu party out of the government Tuesday.

Palestinian as well as Israeli analysts said Sharon’s gestures are unlikely to change the dynamics on the ground, where Israel continues a massive offensive against refugee camps and the security infrastructure of the Palestinian Authority. Meanwhile, Palestinian suicide bombers are blowing themselves up wherever they find Israelis gathered.

“This war will not be over in one week,” said Lt. Gen. Shaul Mofaz, the Israeli army chief of staff, told reporters. “We shouldn’t let it tire us. We need mental strength to win the war.”

Mofaz said the army “will continue its operations on land, air and sea over the coming days in a continuous way. There will be efforts to arrest wanted Palestinians.”

Shortly before midnight Sunday, a Palestinian gunman opened fire in a party hall in Ashdonnot, on the southern Israeli coast, injuring one teenager, police said. The gunman was captured when his weapon jammed. Also Sunday, Israeli troops entered refugee camps in Bethlehem, looking for militants. And near the West Bank town of Nablus, a 13-year-old boy was shot dead when Israeli soldiers fired on stone-throwing youths, Palestinian officials said.

Before dawn today, Israeli troops and tanks entered Kalkilya, a West Bank town close to the pre-1967 border with Israel, and troops began house-to-house searches for militants. Palestinians reported that a police station was destroyed and one person killed.

Israeli troops have killed about 200 Palestinians in little more than a week and have made 1,200 arrests, Mofaz said. Palestinians say that many of those killed were civilians.

Palestinian political analyst and pollster Khalil Shikaki said that even if both sides agree to a cease-fire now, Arafat’s ability to enforce it is limited.

“Arafat is not going to take any risk at this stage,” Shikaki said. “He would have to fight to achieve peace and quiet, and there could be a lot of bloodshed” if his security forces took on the Palestinian militias.

“I do not expect anything good to come of Zinni’s visit,” said Hussam Khader, a Palestinian parliament member and leader of Arafat’s mainstream Fatah movement in the militant Balata refugee camp. “Even if they agree to a cease-fire, I do not think it will hold as long as Israel’s siege and escalation continues. Israel will have to do a lot to convince the fighters to stop shooting.”

But Sharon could not afford to appear unwilling to explore political options.

Twelve Israelis, plus an infant whose parents brought her here a week ago from South Africa to visit her grandparents, died in two separate attacks Saturday night.

The first attack was in the seaside town of Netanya, where a pair of gunmen opened fire in a hotel before they were shot dead. That attack also left an Israeli man and the infant dead. In the second attack, a suicide bomber killed himself and 11 others at a trendy Jerusalem restaurant. About 42 of the people injured in the two attacks remained hospitalized Sunday.

Among those buried Sunday were the 9-month-old, Avia Malka, and a couple, Danit Dagan, 25, and Ori Felix, 25, who were to be married next month. Instead, they were buried side by side.

Dozens of Israelis, many of them young people who regularly patronized Cafe Moment in the affluent Rehavia neighborhood, gathered outside, watching crews sweeping up glass and starting to make repairs. Some wept and hugged each other. Others vowed that they will not be broken by a terror campaign that has made an entire nation fearful of dining out, celebrating life rituals or going shopping.

“It’s here, right amongst us, in the middle of Rehavia . . . the heart of Old Jerusalem. The heart of the last attempt to preserve a semblance of sanity in Jerusalem,” wrote Arie Shavit in a front page opinion piece in the Haaretz newspaper.

“We can no longer keep fooling ourselves,” he wrote. “This war is about the morning’s coffee and croissant. About the beer in the evening. About our lives.”

Inbal Levy, 23, stood with a small group of friends, trembling and fighting back tears. She has worked at Cafe Moment for a month, Levy said, but was off duty Saturday night.

A waitress who had started work Saturday night was killed in the blast, Levy said. “I don’t know how we get up and go back to work after each of these,” she said, her voice breaking. “It makes me angry that the media refer to Palestinians as victims and not to us, the little people who are just young people who want to live, to go out. Nobody sees what is happening to us. We are losing our minds.”

Soon after she spoke, two Palestinians were killed near Jerusalem when their car exploded. Police said they were on their way to carry out a suicide attack and the bomb went off prematurely. Palestinians said the car was hit by Israeli missiles.

In another incident, Israeli border patrol officers shot dead a Palestinian they said tried to bypass a checkpoint. An army spokesman said police found a Kalashnikov assault rifle, ammunition and grenades in the Palestinian’s backpack.

In the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian opened fire on Israeli soldiers guarding an isolated Jewish settlement, killing one soldier. The gunman also stabbed a security officer before he was shot dead by troops, an army spokesman said.