Last Dance, Last Chance?

By Matt Rees/Jerusalem

If the peace process was supposed to represent hope for a new generation of young Israelis, its meltdown came last week in the form of a suicide bomber who targeted those very teenagers. Just before midnight Friday, an Islamic Jihad bomber slipped in among Israeli clubbers at a beachfront night spot in Tel Aviv and detonated his belt of explosives, blasting ball bearings, nails and screws through the crowd. Of the 18 Israelis who died, eight were age 16 or under. Only one was over 21. An additional 115 were injured, stretchered into hospitals in their sequined dance duds. It was the worst terrorist attack in five years.

The attack on a nightclub in Tel Aviv's Dolphinarium, a former aquarium turned entertainment complex, sparked a frenzy of diplomatic action and angry demonstrations. Under international pressure to curb the killers, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat promised to do all he could to secure an "immediate and unconditional cease-fire." Israel's Cabinet didn't buy it. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon declared his own cease-fire two weeks ago and watched the toll continue to mount. But as observers waited for Sharon's tactical decision on whether to hit back, Sharon was, in fact, rethinking his strategy. His emergency Cabinet meeting Saturday clearly held the Palestinian leader responsible for all attacks and took a significant step toward designating him and his Palestinian Authority as enemies. "Arafat has proved he's not a partner for peace," Cabinet minister Dan Naveh told TIME. "The bottom line is that Arafat is giving a green light to Hamas and Islamic Jihad."

Sharon gave Arafat a last chance. The Cabinet said it would watch for Arafat's promised cease-fire to show on the ground. But Israeli patience is thin. After the bombing, Israel closed all crossings from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and barred Arafat from using the Gaza airport. Across the beachfront promenade from the Dolphinarium, Israeli rioters besieged the Hassan Bek mosque even as the Cabinet met. Rioters wearing swimsuits crossed from the beach to the mosque to hurl stones at a few dozen worshipers and to charge police, who brought up water cannon and horses. Even many of the left-wingers who support the peace process are on board with Sharon's tough line. When U.S. envoy William Burns met with top Israeli politicians last Monday, Sharon stepped aside and let archdove Shimon Peres make the government's anti-Arafat pitch.

Arafat is in a tough position. His promise of a cease-fire raises expectations that he will rein in his own gunmen and jail Islamic terrorists. But the mood among Palestinians is unforgiving, and Arafat will find it hard to justify arrests when most Palestinians favor more attacks against Israelis. Sharon promises to defend Israeli citizens, and his Cabinet ministers talk darkly of "removing the immunity" of senior Palestinian Authority officials. With almost 600 people dead in the eight-month Aqsa intifadeh, no one expects the youngsters at the Dolphinarium to be the last to pay the price for peace's ever worsening failure.

--By Matt Rees/Jerusalem. With reporting by Jamil Hamad/Bethlehem

With reporting by Jamil Hamad/Bethlehem