Sharon Vows to Keep Pressure on Hamas

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told lawmakers Monday that no peace with the Palestinians is possible while “terror runs rampant” and declared that Israel would continue to hunt down those who carry out suicide bombings and other attacks.

While Sharon’s remarks, addressed to a special session of the Knesset, or parliament, did not represent a significant departure from the prime minister’s previously stated positions, their timing was highly sensitive, coming amid intensifying diplomatic efforts to shore up an already battered U.S.-backed peace plan.

Sharon’s refusal to rule out the continuation of what Israel calls “targeted killings” of Palestinian militants could herald more woes for the peace blueprint known as the “road map.” Inaugurated 13 days ago at a summit attended by President Bush, the plan has been overshadowed by a wave of violence that has claimed more than 60 lives.

In what could be a portent of more bloodshed, two days of Egyptian-led talks in the Gaza Strip with Hamas officials ended Monday with no sign the group was prepared to consider a cease-fire. The talks were to resume later in the week, and Hamas said it was studying the situation, but a senior leader said he personally saw little likelihood of a truce.

“This is not the time for a cease-fire because it might create the impression that Hamas is bowing to threats,” said Ismail abu Shanab, a university lecturer who is one of the group’s main spokesmen. “A cease-fire is a surrender to occupation.”

Last week, Israel launched its heaviest offensive in months against the group. Half a dozen missile strikes against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip wounded senior leader Abdulaziz Rantisi, killed six other activists and destroyed what Israel said was a storehouse for homemade rockets, which Hamas has been firing at Israeli towns.

Hamas has also been under pressure from other quarters. Bush has branded Palestinian militants such as those in Hamas “killers” and enemies of peace, and the European Union was weighing ways to cut off financial support to the group.

Under the leadership of Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinians announced that they would press ahead with efforts to attain a truce with Hamas. Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, arrived late Monday in Gaza, and aides said he hoped to talk today with Hamas.

Ziad abu Amr, Abbas’ liaison between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, played down the apparent stalemate in the Egyptian-led talks, saying the members of the delegation from Cairo had only intended to listen to the views of armed Palestinian factions and consider ways to encourage dialogue.

“Their mission was successful,” Abu Amr said.

Abbas has devoted considerable effort to trying to secure a cease-fire with Hamas rather than launching the sweeping crackdown on militants that the Israelis would like to see. Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom told Israel Radio that Sharon’s government believed Hamas would use a hiatus in fighting to re-equip and regroup.

With news reports here suggesting that U.S. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell could pay a visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories at week’s end, veteran U.S. diplomat John Wolf held talks Monday with Israeli leaders and was to meet with Palestinian officials today. U.S. officials in Israel declined to discuss the substance of the talks, other than to say they are aimed at calming tensions and getting the peace plan on track.

Wolf arrived over the weekend, along with a team of State Department and CIA officials charged with overseeing implementation of initial phases of the road map. Under it, Israel is to begin a pullback of troops from key Palestinian areas, with Palestinian officials assuming responsibility for security when the Israelis leave. The two sides have indicated that they are close to reaching an arrangement for an Israeli withdrawal from a swath of northern Gaza and from the West Bank town of Bethlehem.

The recent round of violence, though, has shaken the faith of both Israelis and Palestinians that the steps mandated by the road map will lead to a resolution of the 32-month-old conflict, which has killed more than 800 Israelis and more than 2,300 Palestinians.

“One day there is a handshake, and the next day a massive terror attack,” Nahum Barnea, one of Israel’s most respected political commentators, wrote in Monday’s editions of the Yediot Aharonot newspaper. “One day there is assassination, insult ... and the next day a reconciliation. Is this soap opera going anywhere?”

In his Knesset speech Monday evening, Sharon characterized the road map as “not an agreement but a framework” -- language that was probably meant to remind lawmakers that his government’s approval of the road map had come with a caveat: 14 separately listed reservations about its terms.

Invoking his many decades spent fighting in Israel’s wars, the prime minister hammered away at the theme that in seeking a negotiated accord, he would not do anything to compromise the country’s security.

“It is impossible to reach a political agreement, certainly not a peace agreement, while terror runs rampant,” he said. “We will pursue and capture all of the initiators and perpetrators of terror wherever they may be and for as long as necessary.” Lawmakers voted, 57-42, to endorse Sharon’s remarks.

Despite the show of support, Sharon was berated by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle over various provisions in the peace plan.

With the prime minister listening expressionlessly, right-wing politicians accused him of having ceded too much already, while the left accused him of jeopardizing the plan -- and Israeli lives -- with the timing of the attacks against Hamas leaders, particularly the strike at Rantisi last Tuesday. The next day, a Hamas bomber blew up a crowded bus in downtown Jerusalem, killing 17 Israelis.

Despite insistence by Sharon and his aides that Rantisi indeed posed an imminent threat, many Israelis believe the timing of the attempted assassination was needlessly inflammatory.

On Sunday night, Israel’s Channel 10 aired an emotional encounter that came as Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz was paying a condolence call on the family of a soldier, 19-year-old Sgt. Tamar Ben Eliyahu, who was killed in the bus bombing.

“You are an accessory to murder,” the dead woman’s sister, Hadas, told the defense minister, her voice shaking. “All you offer us is violence and killing.... I had a charming little sister.” Faced with the outburst, Mofaz offered no argument.

“The pain of losing a close family member is unbearable,” he said on television later, “and therefore one cannot judge people in their hour of sorrow.”