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News and Notes: Bombings, Recriminations and Other Musings

© lawhawk

Well, another week has passed in the Middle East and things have gotten back to normal. The normal cycle of violence and violent crackdown that is. Hamas has claimed responsibility for the recent bombings in Machene Yehuda that claimed the lives of 15 and wounded over 100 others. Apparently two men carried briefcases into this very busy shopping area and blew themselves (and the people around them) up. This location is one of the busiest locations in Jerusalem and is visited daily by both Arabs and Israelis looking for good deals on food, clothing and other goods. When I visited there in 1994, I was amazed at the large number of people shopping and milling around looking for the best deals. The Middle East has a tradition of haggling for the best deals and many people come to shopping bazaars like Machene Yehuda to get the best deals. Increasing the numbers over the usual large crowds was that Israelis were shopping for the Sabbath and it would appear the bombers chose to strike in the early afternoon so as to wreak the most damage as possible.

The Israelis are looking at cracking down on the Arab militants located in territories they continue to occupy in the West Bank but are also taking to task the Palestinian Authority for giving tacit approval to continued violence that has practically ground the peace process to a halt. While the Israelis are not exactly blameless for their actions during the last year for slowing the peace process, it is understandable that they look to Yasir Arafat to bring Hamas under control and cease the violent clashes that have been occurring intermittently between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians in Hebron. Hamas would like nothing better to do than to bring the whole peace process to a halt; it would serve their goals quite well. Namely, to discredit the Palestinian Authority and the PLO in the eyes of the Palestinians and Israelis and to increase their own power base.

Israel, for their part, needs to continue to negotiate and communicate with the Palestinian Authority to show Hamas that their actions will not be successful. Netanyahu needs to balance the feelings of outrage and revenge brought about by the bombing with the stark reality that these events will continue to occur so long as the Israelis control large swaths of land in Israel and West Bank, not to mention Jerusalem.

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