...or why this was never about reaching a peace agreement...

http://www.boston.com/dailynews/156/world/Palestinians_say_violence_is_t:.shtml

Palestinians say violence is the only way to persuade Israel to leave

By Mort Rosenblum, Associated Press, 6/5/2001 01:00

HEBRON, West Bank (AP) Sitting cross-legged among the gas stoves and wrenches no one buys, an NBA cap perched above his gray whiskers, Mohammed Laban is clear about terror bombing in Tel Aviv: ''They should do it again.''

Killing 20 young people may not be good, Laban said Sunday, but war is that way, and fighting back seems to him the Palestinians' only course. ''Israel is a snake,'' he said, ''and America is its tail.''

In Hebron, a crucible of mutual hatred where bitter words are daily currency, Friday's suicide assault brought something new. Jews, the Palestinians say, were made to pay in their own heartland. Maybe they would finally come to terms.

''They have to understand that there is no peace unless they go from Hebron,'' said Ahmad Mohammed, a soft-speaking 30-year-old whose family has made pottery in this ancient city for eight generations. With the crisis, visitors don't come, and Mohammed has sold nothing in three months; Laban's hardware store has done little better.

''I'll tell you the truth,'' he said. ''We are very happy. It is not good, this killing, on either side. But many people have died so far. Maybe the Jews will think about what happened in Tel Aviv. Maybe they'll stop killing the Palestinian people.''

Mohammed's shop is on Share Sahleh Flat Street which is at the epicenter of Israeli-Palestinian tension. It faces the Gutnick Center where many of the 425 Jewish urban settlers drop in for lunch behind Israeli paratroopers' M-16 rifles.

Hebron was home to the Jews' Abraham and the Muslims' Ibrahim, the same revered prophet, and the battle over his spiritual legacy continues to this day. The tiny Jewish nucleus lives among 130,000 Arabs near sites that both regard as holy.

Across the West Bank, sentiment was plainly in favor of the Tel Aviv attack. One Palestinian public opinion center found 76 percent support for the suicide bombing, and other informal sampling suggested that was close.

In Ramallah, the sophisticated city just north of Jerusalem, reaction to the latest bombing was more layered. Some wealthy Palestinians felt it would only bring harsher punishment by the Israelis, stalling any progress in talks.

But among the hardcore in Hebron, the mood was overwhelming.

Hamdi Samur sells cucumbers in the market but, he says, he knows about basic physics. ''For every reaction, there is a reaction,'' he said, ''and this is the result of Israeli aggression against us.''

Just down the street, meantime, determined Jews rallied support to extend their control to nearby Abu Sneineh hill. Late in March, a Palestinian sniper shot downward, killing 10-month-old Shalhevet Pass. The bullet also wounded her father.

Altogether in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, a new wave of violence since September has killed 484 people on the Palestinian side and 108 on the Israeli side.

Fighting erupted even though Israel had offered to evacuate most of the West Bank and Gaza provided the Palestinians drop other claims such as the return of millions of refugees to Israel. The offer was rejected and is off the table.

''There has been too much death,'' Ahmad Mohammed said outside his shop, folding his arms around his 10-year-old, Sameh. ''You think I want him to live like this? Still, there will be no peace until they go.''

He has three other children. As he ticked off their names, he got to Nermin, a daughter only 18 months old. Quietly, he murmured a brief prayer for her and shook off tears before returning to the conversation.

''Israel wanted land, peace and security without paying anything,'' he said, shaking his head.

During the last round of violence, he said, a wealthy Jewish American asked him the value of his small shop.

''I told him maybe $100,000, and he said he would give me one million for it,'' Mohammed said. ''I said if I accepted that, I would have to kill myself from sorrow within a few years. Once Jews move in here, our city, our home, is gone.''

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2001