Word: palestinians
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...terrorist wants to kill, but that is his means, not his goal. The point is to spread fear and shock on a massive scale, to instill a sense of helplessness. By that measure, Salah Abdel Rahim Nazal Souwi proved an excellent terrorist. Last Wednesday the 27-year-old Palestinian from the West Bank city of Kalkilya boarded the heavily traveled No. 5 bus in downtown Tel Aviv carrying a 22-lb. package of TNT. At 8:55 a.m., just after the bus passed Dizengoff Square in the heart of the shopping district, he stood up and blew himself...
Even Arafat's own ministers acknowledge that the Palestinian authority could do more to rein in Hamas. Said one: "We have functioned in a way that gives the Israelis a reason not to trust us and Hamas no reason to fear us." Still, the failure of Israel's efforts to save Waxman underscores how difficult that chore is. Despite its superior firepower, an extensive intelligence network and a willingness to use draconian measures, the Israeli army was never able to subdue Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Now it expects Arafat's far less sophisticated force to achieve that goal...
Arafat is also burdened with heavy political considerations. "Already people feel that the Palestinian authority has become an instrument of the Israelis," says Ghassan Khatib, who monitors Palestinian public opinion. An all-out assault on Hamas would jeopardize its credibility further. "Is a Palestinian civil war the price of Israel's concept of peace?" the East Jerusalem newspaper An-Nahar asked in an editorial on Friday...
Nevertheless, though the drama ended fatally for Waxman, the story's other hostage -- the delicate negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians -- may yet survive. In the end, Rabin's test for Arafat did not materialize: Waxman had not been imprisoned within the Gaza Strip. In the aftermath of the saga, progress toward a full peace may be slowed as Israel insists that Arafat crack down generally on Palestinian extremists. The process was shaken, but, despite the tragedy, it was no longer imperiled. At least until the next test comes...
...grim challenge to the Israeli-Palestinian peace accords ended in bloodshed with the death of hostage Nahshon Waxman, a 19-year-old Israeli soldier who was being held by members of the radical Palestinian group Hamas. Waxman, another Israeli soldier and three of the captors were killed during a rescue attempt by Israeli commandos, which came an hour before the expiration of the militants' original deadline for sparing Waxman's life. Under pressure from both Israel and the U.S., P.L.O. chairman Yasser Arafat's security forces had arrested some 300 alleged Hamas activists in the Gaza Strip in a vain...