Shattered
•PlasiZZ Ap. arra OP=
lirm
'
where, at any distance, at any op-
portunity. If a group organizes in
(Palestinian-controlled) Nablus,
tonight they should die in
Nablus, in their beds."
After the Monday attack in Tel
Aviv and the creation of a special
headquarters to wage the war
against terrorism, Mr. Peres him-
selfheightened the sense that Is-
rael might mount military
strikes.
Indeed, public clamor for such
strikes has understandably
grown.
Lone voices like that of Pro-
PHOTO BY AP
fessor Ehud Sprinzak, a Hebrew
University expert on political ex-
tremism, have protested that the
"zap and we're done with it"
method of dealing with terror-
ism has failed in the past. And
anti-terrorism experts like for-
mer General Security Services
Chief Carmi Gillon have stressed
that there's little point in taking
military measures without hav-
ing intelligence on precisely
where to strike at any given hour
as the terrorists will hardly be
sitting at home waiting for the
IDF.
lir— APE%
Nevertheless, the tone has def-
initely changed from the rhetor-
ical "we shall pursue the peace
process as if there were no ter-
rorism and pursue terrorists as
if there were no peace process" to
a declaration of "all-out war" on
Hamas.
But if this will be a tradition-
al war with a dear victor and los-
er depends on how the terrorist
groups respond (they have
promised more to come), how far
Mr. Arafat will go to rescue
peace, and how far Mr. Peres is
prepared to depart from it. 0
Life During Wartime
Israelis are jittery, but going on with life as the
nation prepares to defend a previously unknown
battlefield — its civilian life.
LARRY DERFNER ISRAEL CORRESPONDENT
veryone from Shimon Peres to Bibi Netanyahu is saying
that Israel is at war — at war with Hamas and Islamic Ji-
had. In Tel Aviv, however, it does not feel like war. It doesn't
feel at all like normalcy, but this is not Bosnia.
Outside Dizengoff Center, the day after the bombing, many
hundreds of people were jamming the sidewalks,
spilling onto the street. It seemed a contradiction —
people were shouting that they had no security, they
were staring up at the blasted-out windows four sto-
ries up, but here they were bunched together in a crowd,
making themselves a tempting target if the terrorists
decided to strike twice in the same place.
People may be afraid, but not many are paralyzed
by fear. Israelis, even in Tel Aviv, are still walking out-
doors, going about their business.
But there is a bad brew of feelings in the air. People
are grief-stricken, enraged and tense. They know
Hamas may well strike again — soon, anywhere. On
the newsstands the daily tabloids are filled with color
pictures of the disaster. "NATION IN FEAR" reads the
huge, half-page headline in Yediot.
"They shouldn't print things like that — it makes
people even more scared," said a newsstand owner on
Dizengoff, about a half-mile from the Center.
"But that's the way people feel. That's the truth," ar-
gued a customer.
"A boy is walking along looking for his mother, and
all of a sudden he's blown up!" shouted a man near the
Center.
The day after the bombing was Purim. Here and
there children were dressed in costumes, but they were
few. All celebrations, obviously, were canceled. "The
street should have been filled here, it should have been
a happy day, but look — it's empty," said a woman who
runs a newsstand on Dizengoff.
It was impossible to gauge the turnout at the most
crowded public place in Tel Aviv, the outdoor Carmel
Market, because the many hundreds of vendors, save
a few, kept their stalls closed. "The vendors commit-
tee decided not to work today because of the victims,
and so they could go demonstrate," said a Carmel Mar-
ket delicatessen owner. "Nobody wants to sell today,
nobody wants to buy. People's hearts
Bodies lie amidst are broken," said another.
The market is known as a strong-
the wreckage of a
bus destroyed in a hold of the right wing-, the vendors con-
bomb explosion
tributed loud, angry voices to the
in downtown
protests outside Dizengoff Center.
Jerusalem on
The most visible effect from the
Feb. 25.
string of suicide bombings and the
threat of more, was on the buses. In
midafternoon in Tel Aviv, buses running through down-
town are usually standing-room-only. On this day there
were plenty of available seats.
On the 61 line running along Dizengoff, a woman
from Ramat Gan said that before sitting down, she
checked the aisle to see if there were any suspicious-
looking objects on the floor. .
For Israelis, unattended bags and pa kages in a store
or on a sidewalk are considered potential bombs, and
are supposed to be reported to police. This Purim po-
lice said an unusually high number of suspicious-ob-
ject reports were coining in.
Aside from checking the aisle, though, the woman
said she was not changing her daily routine. "I went to
Dizengoff to get my hair cut," she said. "The day after
a terror attack there's fear, but after awhile it wears
off and things go back to normal." ❑
E