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"It was terrible. I don't believe Arafat. He's a big liar.
He's just stalling for time for sympathy from the
world, and he's not going to get it."
— Albert Goldberg, Farmington Hills
"I have a grandson and granddaughter in Israel, and I'm
very worried. I want peace and I want the Palestinians
to stop throwing stones and sit down to talk peace."
Dmara Ovsyannikova, Southfield
"My brother is there and my nephew is in the army,
and that's why I'm worried. My brother's family is
calm about the situation. They say they are used to
it and they hope it will get better. They tell us not
to worry, but we worry. Everybody (in the Russian
community) has family there, and this is like a part
of ourselves."
Latinsky, S'outhfreid
S
"I don't know what will happen there. I have a son, 45
years old, and a granddaughter, 20, in the army. A
grandson, 17, not in the army yet. And I am worried."
----- Sofia Shvaykovskaya, Oak Park
"I was in Israel last November. Ever since then, I
unhesitatingly told people it was fine to go. After
last week, it was the first time I had real concerns.
People should go, but I have concerns about inno-
cent tourists and shoppers being victimized by the
et
..VAM 4
,
4
may 29 - Three Israelis are kill d iii
e
separate shooting attacks i
Bank. Gilead Zar,-aseccuril
b
n the
guardforr
\X fes a
West Bank settlement, is kdled in a road-
side ambush near Nablus, three months
after he -was seriously woun ded
er shooting incideni'
in ?lib
Later that day, on . the
funeral, a resident of wayto
ements
Zar of
Efrat — Sarah 131austein
t
grant from the United St
aTi'i:4*17
killed when shots are fired
lier husband, Norman
wounded, and a sonr 014
'4'
ously wounded with t ee
his back. Another person in the car,
Esther Alva, 20, dies several hours after..
the attack.
Terrorists also open ire o
funeral procession.
side a
city o
tififa'
Class
not to
the explosion.
b omb explodes o
t he Israeli coastal
sessron
six people.
it the tim2-.
&atm
,4, 04 "OrMIP'
wounds. The aft. Me t
after Israeli and Pa les'
officials
ocials meet for a secdti tim
ece ur in two
IV*
days but fail to find a way to end the
violence.
Ame1— A suicide bomber kills 19
Israelis and wounds more than 90 at a
Tel. Aviv beachsicle disco.
LI
irrationalities of the conflict."
wY
— Michael Horowitz, co-chair, Israel and Overseas
Committee, Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit
"I talked to friends in Tel Aviv and they say the
mood there is about as had as they've seen. They are
bringing counselors into the schools and their kids
don't go anywhere for fear of these acts. The impact
is unbelievable.'
— Steven Rabinovitz, Huntington Woods
8
equally fatalistic regarding the prospect of a military
assault directed at his government.
International Pressure
Second, the international community, especially the United
States, used the imminent threat of massive Israeli retalia-
tion to persuade Arafat that this was really his last chance to
order a cessation of hostilities.
The international community's pressure was driven home
in a particularly effective manner thanks to the chance pres-
ence in the region of Germany's foreign minister, Joschka
Fischer, who was staying in a Tel Aviv sea-front hotel when
the bomb went off.
"I thought of my own two children, aged 17 and 20,"
Fischer later told reporters as he shuttled between Jerusalem
and Ramallah to tell the two sides to stop the slide to all-
out war.
Informed diplomatic sources said the German minister
spoke to Arafat in a more forceful way than any European
statesman had ever addressed him before. And, for now at
least, it seemed to work.
Arafat issued instructions on Saturday to halt the shoot-
ing; the instructions were carried, though not as headlines,
on the official Palestinian radio; and, most importantly, P.A.
forces fanned out at key pressure points to prevent firefights
with Israel.
There was sporadic fighting early in the week, but Israeli
Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer announced that
there had been a marked drop in shooting incidents
throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Israel was still demanding that the P.A. arrest or, in most
cases, rearrest known Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists in
order to prevent more suicide bombings.
Measured Restraint
The last factor that makes this cease-fire potentially differ-
ent is Israel's national unity government, which was able to
show restraint and thereby preserve the tentative cease-fire
in the wake of the disco bombing.
A weaker government either of the left or right would
almost certainly not have had the political confidence to
withstand the huge wave of anger that swept the country
over the weekend and the demands for military retribu-
tion.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon defended his decision
not to respond to the Tel Aviv attack.
"Restraint is strength," he said after visiting a Tel Aviv
hospital where young people were recovering from their
injuries.
Shimon Peres, the senior Labor Party member in the
unity government, told his party that the broad base of the
government made restraint possible.
Ultimately, though, both veteran leaders acknowledged
that their policy of restraint is predicated on the
Palestinians' commitment to uphold the cease-fire.
As Israeli officials know only too well, any shooting inci-
dent has the potential to upset the delicate balance of
deterrence and diplomacy that has so far kept the region
from falling into the abyss. ❑
W,K
6/8
2001
25