Second attack shatters the hopes of Peres election hopes

Bus explosion: Far-right calls for revenge after two identical blasts in eight days put Middle East peace process in jeopardy

PATRICK COCKBURN

Jerusalem

The bomb went off with a dull crump moments before 6.30am. Hamas had just declared a week-long truce so for a few seconds another suicide attack seemed unlikely. Then I heard the sound of sirens as police cars converged on a stretch of Jaffa Road 200 metres from my apartment.

As I walked towards where the bomb appeared to have gone off I saw the tall figure of Lars Petersen, a Danish radio journalist, who shouted: "It's worse than last time." Just down the road I could see the blackened skeleton of a bus outside a flower shop where I had bought some tulips the day before. With its roof blown off and its sides ripped out, it looked exactly like the bus destroyed by a suicide bomber half a mile further along the Jaffa Road a week before.

By now Israeli radio said there were at least 10 dead. Looking at the wreckage of the bus, with only a small strip of its red-and-white paint surviving, it seemed unlikely that anybody could have got out alive. A soldier had thrown a white sheet over one body lying on the ground. A man in a skull cap and wearing white surgical gloves was staring, appalled, at a piece of bone with some flesh attached which was lying in the gutter. A bout of nausea saved the life of one woman who asked the bus driver to allow her off the bus when she felt ill. A minute after alighting she saw the bus explode.

The suicide bomber detonated his explosives, which killed him and 18 fellow passengers, just as bus number 18 passed the central post office, travelling down Jaffa Road away from the old city of Jerusalem. He may have just boarded the bus one stop before, which is only a few minutes walk from Palestinian districts in East Jerusalem. The bus appeared to have gone on moving after it exploded, because shops 20 metres behind it sustained the worst damage.

It was a carbon copy of the suicide attack which had killed 25 people six stops further along Jaffa Road the Sunday before. The only difference was that yesterday's bomb exploded about 15 minutes earlier. To show that there is no defence against a man who is prepared to kill himself, the bomber - later named as Islam Mohammed, 24, from Hebron - had boarded the same number bus which comes from Katamon district in Jerusalem. The security guard on board - 800 are being hired - and the sealing off of Jerusalem from the West Bank had made no difference.

The devastating political impact of the second bus bomb on Shimon Peres, the Prime Minister, was immediately evident. Some ultra-orthodox Jews from the nearby Mea She'arim district were shouting: "Peres get out. We don't want you." Ordinary passers-by were also angry. One man kept shouting: "Do something. Do something."

When Mr Peres arrived he was greeted with jeers. He had said after last week's bomb that peace, like war, had its sacrifices. Now this was thrown back at him, as people shouted: "We don't want any more sacrifices for peace." More threatening was a voice in the crowd which kept shouting: "Yigal Amir, Yigal Amir" - the name of the assassin of Yitzhak Rabin.

Ehud Olmert, the right-wing mayor of Jerusalem, whose offices overlook where the bomb went off, arrived at the scene. He gave the latest casualty figures, but refused to discuss the political effect of what had happened. He did not really need to. Mr Peres and Labour, who appeared assured of a landslide two weeks ago, are now likely to lose the election on 29 May. "I've had it with peace," said the owner of a newsagents within sight of the burnt-out bus: "We gave the Palestinians what they said they wanted and now we have 47 dead in one week. So who needs the peace process?"

Only a month ago polls were showing that a record 59 per cent of Israelis approved of the Oslo accords. The right-wing Likud party was trying to think of ways of pulling back from its outright opposition to agreement with the Palestinians. This was why Mr Peres decided that Labour should go to the polls six months early. It is a decision he must now regret. Visitors who have seen him in private in recent days say he is distraught and exhausted. He shows people an encouraging fax from a 10-year-old girl saying the peace process is bound to have setbacks.

Ari Rosenberg, a religious Jew who owns a toy shop, outside which crowds were shouting for Mr Peres to resign, said: "This is not the way. We should not be so impulsive. Arafat [the PLO leader] will have to do something, or Israelis will abandon Peres. He will have to get rid of Hamas or there won't be peace."

Yasser Arafat's round-up of the usual suspects in Gaza and the West Bank last week had not impressed Mr Rosenberg or, indeed, many other Israelis. Yet he could see that permanent closure of the West Bank and Gaza from Israel "has its good and bad side. Maybe it will protect us a little, but if you have a real peace, you must live with people."

Standing in the street in the rain, Yehuda Hadar, a grizzled 47-year- old, had a more direct approach. Asked how he would stop suicide bombs he said he agreed with General Rehavam Ze'evi, leader of the far-right Moledet party, who said that "every time a bus is blown up here we should blow up two buses in Nablus and Jenin [in the West Bank]." Mr Hadar hesitated after repeating this suggestion, saying it was against Jewish morality, but he was convinced that Mr Arafat had outwitted the Israeli government and was the hidden hand behind the bombings.

Mr Hadar may be an extreme example, but most Israelis feel that Mr Arafat could and should have done more. "Do you know about the attempted attack by five Hamas men on the settlement at Gush Katif near Gaza?" Mr Hadar asked. "Why didn't Arafat stop that?" He repeated a story that Mr Arafat had secretly told Arab diplomats that he would make life "so miserable for the Jews that they would leave Israel of their own accord". Arabs, he added, were naturally duplicitous and liked killing.

The problem is that nobody knows how to stop a suicide bomber. Mr Hadar suggested deporting their families and blowing up their houses. These were Israeli methods in the past, but are unlikely to deter somebody prepared to die. Nor are more stringent security measures likely to help. Closure of the roads into Jerusalem stops Palestinians going to work but it is usually simple for somebody without a car to get through. The bombers of a week ago came from al-Fawwar refugee camp outside Hebron where overall security is in the hands of the Israelis.

As a fork-lift truck dragged away the remains of bus 18, there was a screech of metal as its underside scraped along the road. The small shops, which were not too badly damaged, began to reopen with surprising speed. Their owners ignored the demonstrators outside.

"I opened up the shop today," said Mr Rosenberg, "so I could tell friends who phone that I am all right and to show that life still goes on."

Onward march of terrorist violence

Attacks by Muslim militants in Israel since the signing of the first Israel-PLO peace agreement in September 1993:

6 April 1994 - A Palestinian parks a car rigged with explosives next to a bus in Afula, northern Israel. Nine people are killed. Hamas claims the attack.

13 April 1994 - A Palestinian blows himself up on a bus in the central town of Hadera. Six people are killed. Hamas claims responsibility.

19 October 1994 - A Palestinian suicide bomber kills 22in a bus explosion in Tel Aviv. Hamas claims responsibility.

12 November 1994: A suicide bomber in the Gaza Strip kills three Israeli soldiers and himself. Islamic Jihad claims responsibility.

25 December 1994 - A Palestinian bomber wounds 12 in a suicide attack on a commuter bus in Jerusalem. Hamas claims responsibility.

22 January 1995 - Two Palestinians blow themselves up at the Beit Lid junction in central Israel. The blast, claimed by Islamic Jihad, kills 21 people.

9 April 1995 - Two bombers blow themselves up outside two Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip, killing seven Israeli soldiers and an American student. Hamas and Islamic Jihad claim responsibility.

24 July 1995 - A suicide bomber blows up a commuter bus in Tel Aviv, killing six Israelis and wounding 28. Hamas claims responsibility.

21 August 1995 - A suicide bomber blows up a bus in Jerusalem, killing four Israelis and one American. Hamas claims responsibility.

25 February 1996 - Two suicide bombers, on a commuter bus in Jerusalem, and in the coastal city of Ashkelon, kill 26. Hamas claims responsibility.

26 February 1996 - An Arab-American drives his car into a bus stop in Jerusalem, killing one woman. The driver was killed. Hamas claimed responsibility.

3 March 1996 - A suicide bomber kills at least 18 bus passengers in central Jerusalem. Hamas claims responsibility.