A bomb that exploded on a busy street corner here Thursday reminded Israelis that their war against terrorism is unending, a lesson Americans are just beginning to learn.
A year after the last serious spate of bombings in Israel, a crudely made device wrapped with nails exploded in a garbage can outside a row of small shops at the corner of Allenby and Rothschild streets, near the Great Synagogue in the heart of Tel Aviv.
At least 21 people were injured and 18 were taken to hospitals, several with serious injuries. Among the injured were a toddler and a 4-year-old boy. And Israelis again debated their tortuous peace talks with the Palestinians.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing at 8:40 a.m., but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “There is a strong impression it was a terrorist attack.”
Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat condemned the bombing and all assaults against civilians, but he said he was convinced that this was a “criminal” attack.
Netanyahu visited the wounded at Ichilov Hospital, taking the opportunity to denounce terrorists everywhere and to welcome President Clinton and all Americans to the battle against political violence.
“President Clinton wisely said that the main battle is to fight against terrorists indiscriminately,” Netanyahu said, referring to Clinton’s ordering of missile strikes against suspected terrorist sites in Sudan and Afghanistan after the Aug. 7 bombing of U.S. Embassies in East Africa.
“The main battle against terrorism is to do battle both against the perpetrators themselves and their infrastructure, those who give them sustenance and support,” Netanyahu said.
Earlier this week, an Israeli Apache gunship killed a chief of military operations of the Shiite Amal movement in Southern Lebanon, prompting the largest rocket attack against northern Israeli towns and villages in more than a year.
Israelis have been engaged in an intense public debate over the wisdom of striking against terrorists, as it can unleash far worse retribution–the same kind of debate Americans may yet have over Clinton’s recently proclaimed war against terrorism.
Spontaneous discussions erupted on the streets of Tel Aviv outside shop fronts shattered by Thursday’s bomb, estimated to be about half a pound of explosive.
Moshe Marton, 50, proprietor of a lock and key shop directly across from where the bomb went off, said he was convinced the bomb was connected with Israel’s killing of the Shiite leader.
He also pointed to an inherent difficulty in combating terrorism, a struggle unlike conventional warfare with clearly defined battle lines and military chains of command.
“Among the terrorists themselves, the leadership doesn’t have full control of all the units,” he said.
Marton and other witnesses were quick to connect the incident with other violent chapters in Jewish history. His parents were survivors of the Auschwitz extermination camp. His mother first came to Israel on the ship Exodus.
A paratrooper, Marton fought in several of Israel’s wars with its Arab neighbors. His two sons currently serve in elite units of the Israeli army.
“My parents hoped that by coming to Israel, they were going to be in peace,” he said. “Fifty years later, we ourselves are still hoping that our children will live to see peace.”
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Nisim Sabar, 58, and his son, Avi, 28, whose delicatessen was damaged in the blast, said Thursday’s attack left them pessimistic about the possibility of real peace between Arabs and Jews.
“You come to work in the morning and suddenly you could die,” Avi said. “You get sick of the talks about the peace process. Many people could have died here.”
Given Israel’s long history of terrorist attacks, a number of witnesses to Thursday’s bombing said it was hardly their first brush with violence.
Azran Solongi, 50, who came from Morocco two decades ago, said that her husband, Yossi, was killed in a suicide bombing of a bus in Jerusalem two years ago.
“If I could, I’d leave Israel for some place safer,” Solongi said. “But I have my children here.”
Others, however, were adamant that this attitude was exactly what Israel’s enemies hope to accomplish with political violence.
“What they want is to disrupt our lives,” said Marton, who cleaned up his broken shop windows, then resumed his daily routine. Israelis, he asserted, have no running room.
“I think there won’t be any peace,” said Marton, whose shop is a few blocks from Tel Aviv’s Mediterranean beachfront, where tourists and Israelis were taking advantage of a near-perfect summer afternoon.
“Until we are pushed into the sea, there will be no peace here.”