As a massive blast ripped through a bakery in Israel's southern
city of Eilat Monday morning and killed three local people, a
nine-month quietness free of suicide bombing in the Jewish state
has ended.
This is the first suicide attack ever happened in Eilat, a
peaceful Red Sea resort city for both Israeli and foreigners.
Israel suffers far-reaching losses
Apart from the casualties, Israel bears a much heavier loss than
what was initially expected. Once again, despite Israel's utmost
efforts to curb the Palestinian militants attack, security
situation deteriorates in Israel.
The bombing came only weeks after Israeli Prime Minister Ehud
Olmert eased restrictions of movement and dismantled a number of
checkpoints to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Both Olmert and
the Palestinian National Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas have
pledged to make great efforts in reviving the peace
negotiation.
Nevertheless, in response to the attack, Israeli right-wing
parties called on the government to adopt a tougher policy with
regards to the Palestinians.
Right-wing Knesset (parliament) member (MK) Arieh Eldad from
National Union-NRP said he hoped the attack would "bring sanity
back to all those who call for negotiating with Hamas and
strengthening Abbas."
Likud MK Yisrael Katz urged the government to immediately stop
the transfer of arms to Fatah, saying "the attack in Eilat serves
as a warning sign to those who believe in the ceasefire with the
Palestinians."
Despite a stepped-up pressure, Israeli government officials
refrained from promising immediate retaliations, because of the
forthcoming Quartet meeting.
The attack occurred only four days before the Quartet of Middle
East peace negotiators were to meet in Washington as part of a
renewed effort to reactivate Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking.
Amid the world calls for Mideast peace, Israel has no many
options for significant military retaliation, but only said that it
would collect intelligence and found the origin of the attack.
Although both Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense
Minister Amir Peretz vowed to continue Israel's fight against
Palestinian militants, Peretz said that Israel would do everything
it can to preserve the Gaza Strip cease-fire declared last
November.
Israel's tourism industry also suffered a major blow by Monday's
attack, which has already been hit hard by hotel and travel agency
cancellations in the aftermath of the Lebanon war last year.
Eilat, at the northern tip of the Red Sea, is popular with both
Israelis and foreign tourists and has been free of violence in the
past. Nearly 180,000 foreign tourists visited the resort last
year.
At present, what Israeli officials indeed should do is to prove
to the world that it is still safe to come to this country.
Avert factional guns toward joint enemy?
Meanwhile, as the Palestinians have been on the edge of civil
war with bloody bout of factional fighting between rival Hamas and
Fatah, the suicide bombing in Eilat might be beneficial for a
reconciliation between the two rivals.
Just like what Islamic Jihad (Holy War) has said, the attack was
meant to help bring an end to weeks-long Hamas-Fatah clashes, which
has killed 60 Palestinian in the Gaza Strip since December last
year.
No matter whether Israel chooses to resort to military
retaliation, the Palestinians are reminded again that they still
have a joint enemy at next door.
Hamas saw the point quite clearly, so it defended the attack as
a "natural response" to Israel's military assaults in the West Bank
and Gaza Strip, as well as Israel's ongoing boycott of the
Hamas-led Palestinian government.
"So long as there is occupation, resistance is legitimate,"
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said, adding that attacks on Israel
were preferable to the Gaza street fights between Hamas and Fatah
gunmen. "The right thing is for Fatah weapons to be directed toward
the occupation not toward Hamas," he added.
But whether such strategy could really work is still in
question. Despite all these statements, fighting between Fatah and
Hamas continued in Gaza, with five more people were killed on
Monday.
The five-day refreshed fighting starting from Thursday has
claimed 32 Palestinian lives.
(Xinhua News Agency January 30, 2007)
