Israel insisted on Monday that Syria is to blame for a Tel Aviv suicide attack as a car packed with explosives was discovered in the West Bank, casting a shadow over efforts to forge peace in the Middle East.
Stepping up the war of words against arch-foe Syria, Israeli intelligence briefed European Union ambassadors on its alleged involvement in Friday’s bombing, claimed by militant group Islamic Jihad.
”We see Syria as responsible by allowing those extremists to have their headquarters there, their training camps there and to give them all the assistance that they’re asking,” Foreign Affairs Minister Silvan Shalom said.
Syria, already under immense international pressure to withdraw its troops from Lebanon, has denied any connection with the nightclub bombing and insists Islamic Jihad’s office in Damascus has closed.
Just three days after the Tel Aviv attack, Israeli troops discovered a car packed with explosives in the northern West Bank, casting yet another shadow over steps towards peace after more than four years of violence.
The military said the vehicle, found outside the village of Arrabeh — not far from the radical stronghold of Jenin — had been rigged by Islamic Jihad.
”The car was ready for use in an attack and it was apparently prepared by the group which carried out the suicide bomb in Tel Aviv,” said a spokesperson.
The European Commission promptly called on Palestinians and Israelis to prevent a new derailment of the peace process, as Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said it would be reckless to let a chance for peace fade.
”President Abbas must take effective steps to fight and dismantle terror organisations, stop incitement, and maintain law and order,” said EU external relations chief Benita Ferrero-Waldner.
”[Israeli] Prime Minister [Ariel] Sharon needs to ease restrictions on freedom of movement. Both sides are taking risks for peace and need our support.”
‘100% effort” to end violence
As the death toll from the Tel Aviv blast rose to five, the overall number of people killed since the September 2000 outbreak of the Palestinian uprising reached 4 742, including 3 682 Palestinians and 986 Israelis.
On the eve of a London conference on Palestinian reform, Abbas insisted the Palestinians are ”exerting 100% effort” to end anti-Israeli violence.
”We have an opportunity and it would be irresponsible if we, the Israelis, or the world allow it to slip away,” he was quoted as telling Britain’s Independent newspaper.
Israel has warned there will be no progress in the peace process until the Palestinians crack down on militants, threatening to halt the planned release of 400 prisoners in the aftermath of the bombing.
But the Jewish state looked set for a U-turn over plans to destroy settler homes in the Gaza Strip when Israel evacuates the occupied territory this year.
”I heartily recommend not destroying these houses and coming up with an arrangement by which they are handed over to officials,” General Giora Eiland, the official overseeing the pull-out, told public radio.
So great is the controversy over the planned withdrawal, with threats of violent resistance from virulent right-wingers, that Israel’s justice ministry has been forced to create a special unit to investigate incitement.
Sharon alone has received 70 death threats in the past three months for the Gaza plan, according to the outgoing head of Israel’s Shin Beth domestic security service, Avi Dichter.
Hand in hand with rhetoric against Syria, Sharon pressed visiting Belgian Foreign Affairs Minister Karel de Gucht to persuade the EU to blacklist Hezbollah, heightening his campaign against the Lebanese-based movement.
Israel has long accused Hezbollah of funding attacks by Palestinian militant groups. A foreign ministry spokesperson said it has ”not been ruled out totally” that the militia was behind Friday’s suicide bombing in Tel Aviv. — Sapa-AFP