Peace and Politics in Israel

Israelis and Palestinians endured another weekend of killings and terror that made peace appear even further away and kept Israel’s national election campaign focused on security, while other issues -- peace included -- languished.

On Friday, Israeli troops searching for militants shot two Palestinians to death in separate incidents in the West Bank. On Saturday, Israeli troops killed a senior leader of Islamic Jihad, saying the group masterminded a bus bombing last month that killed 14 Israelis. On Sunday, Israeli officials reported preventing three attempted suicide bombings. Later in the day, at least one gunman slipped into an Israeli kibbutz whose residents are known for their pro-peace views and shot five people to death, including two children. On Monday, witnesses said, Israeli soldiers fatally shot a 2-year-old and wounded two other children at the Rafah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. Israel, which reported that the soldiers had come under fire, said it could not confirm that any casualties had occurred in the camp.

The kibbutz attack was the ugliest assault on Israelis since Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s coalition government collapsed late last month and he brought in hard-liners to handle the defense and foreign ministries.

The new foreign minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, a former prime minister, is challenging Sharon for leadership of the Likud Party. He keeps urging the expulsion from Ramallah of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. But kicking Arafat out of the occupied territories would inflame Arab passions even more -- and at a time when the United States is trying to maintain Arab support for weapons inspections in Iraq.

Washington is sending an envoy to Jordan this week to discuss reform of Arafat’s Palestinian Authority with Europeans and United Nations officials. Good. The campaign leading to Israel’s Jan. 28 elections will no doubt freeze meaningful peace talks, but the U.S. should not let it halt all movement.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State William Burns said last week that an end to “violence and terror” and an easing of the suffering of Palestinians were necessary before any international peace conference could take place. Palestinian suicide bombings and Israeli retaliation, he said, have caused, in both Israel and the occupied territories, a “collapse of faith in a better future.”

The endless mayhem is not the only reason people feel helpless, though. About 20% of Israelis are living in poverty, according to government figures. Palestinians are even worse off, with malnutrition increasing and many workers prevented by Israeli checkpoints from getting to jobs.

Aides to Netanyahu say the economy is a key issue in his campaign to again become prime minister. Maybe. But suicide bombings make it less likely that such important issues will get attention. And violence is more likely to produce a hard-line government suspicious of Palestinian intentions and unwilling to discuss an eventual Palestinian state. These developments mean that the U.S. envoy planning to discuss Palestinian reform as part of the peace process this week will find the going tougher than before -- but even more necessary.