Suicide bombing in Israel - a thorough dissection
Israel, Analysis, 9/4/1997

It was just like any other suicide bomb attack. The cluster of police and border police units that were scattered all over the site of the explosion in West Jerusalem's busiest commercial street of Ben Yehuda could not prevent the attack.

Jerusalem District police commissioner Yair Yitzhaki said his forces were on alert in the area since the early hours of the morning. Nothing helped. The suicide bombers, apparently three, managed to make their way to the nerve centre of businesses in West Jerusalem and blew themselves up.

Preliminary police reports spoke of the explosives used in the tripartite blasts as identical to the explosives used in the 30 July explosion in the market area of West Jerusalem. The mystery of the market attack has not been solved yet, and Israel has failed to determine who the assailants were. Israel's security service's chances to solve this new blast dilemma seem to be slim too.

Another similarity exists between the two attacks: the US connection. The market blast occured only a few days before the scheduled arrival to the region of US special peace envoy to the Middle East , Dennis Ross. Thursday's bombing took place only five days before the scheduled visit of US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Albright was expected some time ago to visit but has opted to put off her first trip as secretary of state until "conditions are ripe for the resumption of the peace talks." On Wednesday, US officials spoke of a determined Albright who has made up her mind to visit the region and not to retun empty-handed. Now a cloud hovers above her decision. Yet the Palestinian National Authority took a drastic step which has made it easier for Albright to carry on with her planned visit.

Speaking to reporters in Gaza one hour after the attack, PNA cabinet secretary Ahmad Abdul Rahman said the PNA "is ready for a full security coordination and cooperation with Israel to uncover those responsible for the horrendous attack in Ben Yehuda." Abdul Rahman strongly condemned the attack which, he said, was "dreadful against innocent civilians."

No Palestinian group claimed responsibility, though an anonymous caller phoned the offices of Agence France Press and said members of Izziddin Al Qassam, the military arm of Hamas, were behind the attack. However, like the latest blast, Hamas refrained from claiming any responsibility and even denied an earlier report that said the movement was responsible for the market attack.

Press reports circulating in Israel quoted Ramadan Shalah, leader of the Islamic Jihad movement, as saying in an interview he conducted at his Damascus office that both his movement and Hamas had agreed not to officially claim responsibility for attacks against Israel. The decision, Israeli sources said, came to make it easier for the two organizations to carry out attacks against Israel and yet avert being harassed by the PNA. Besides, PNA president Yasser Arafat can easily defend his decision not to take drastic measures against any of the two organizations since none of them is officially responsibile.

So far, what has been known of the suicide bombers can be stated as follows:
One man, dressed like a woman, stood by the entrance of a restaurant. He waited until a group of people gathered next to him and then blew himself up. Some twenty meters away from him two more accomplices waited, again each with a package of explosives, which they detonated with a difference of a few seconds between each of them.

Police troops that rushed to the area urged Israelis to keep away from the site out of fear of extra explosives being planted in the area. All 40 ambulances serving the area of Jerusalem and other ambulances that were rushed from nearby towns participated in evacuating the wounded, whose number stood at around 150, mostly shocked. Five people were said killed, including the three suicide bombers.

Eyewitnesses spoke of the explosions with the same sort of emotional hatred toward Arabs in general and to the Palestinians in particular. One passerby yelled in Hebrew calling for the Israeli prime minister Benyamin Netanyahu to resign and for the Arabs of Palestine to leave to the Arab countries. "They have 22 countries and we only have one. Why do not they go there," yelled the man some 30 minutes after the blast occured.

However, it did not take long for right wing activists to gather themselves and demonstrate at the site of the attack. Chanting slogans like "death to the Arabs" the demonstrators also held banners calling on Netanyahu to stop what they termed as "goodwill gestures" towards the Palestinians.

It is early to say what diplomatic repercussions Thursday's blasts will have, but what is clear today is that chances of a peaceful settlement between the Palestinian National Authority and the Likud government seem as far as they have always been. The only immediate outcome of the attack is perhaps to convince Netanyahu that his chances of preventing suicide attacks against Israel are not better at all than those of his predecessor, Shimon Peres. The Israeli public, which elected Netanyahu on his "peace and security" ticket, will now face a new reality. Tough measures on Netanyahu's behalf against the PNA are not necessarily fruitful. On the contrary, they might even beget more violence. The market area bombing at the end of July helped Netanyahu's image as a tough leader facing the PNA.

Thursday's attack made Netanyahu look as impotent as Peres was. Ironically, Netanyahu's only hope this time seems to be Arafat himself. Whether Netanyahu will accept this notion is yet too premature to suggest.

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