As the Talks Begin

SEPTEMBER 1, 2010

Hamas Hits Israel in Threat to Talks

By CHARLES LEVINSON//WSJ

RAMALLAH, West Bank—Hamas militants claimed responsibility for the killing of four Jewish settlers in the West Bank Tuesday, an attack that seemed aimed at torpedoing a new round of peace talks in Washington this week between Israel and the Palestinians.

Unidentified gunmen shot and killed four Israelis in what appeared to be a drive-by shooting outside a Jewish settlement near the West Bank town of Hebron. Charles Levinson has the latest from Jerusalem.

In the deadliest Palestinian attack against Israelis in nearly two-and-a-half years, gunmen killed the settlers in their car as they stopped at an intersection Tuesday evening outside a Jewish settlement near the West Bank town of Hebron.

Both sides said the talks, which begin Wednesday evening, would go on, but seized on the incident to press their own demands: the Israelis for firm guarantees that a Palestinian-controlled West Bank wouldn't become a base for attacks on Israel, and the Palestinians for the removal of Jewish settlements from the area and greater security responsibilities.

The attack also set the stage for a showdown that could derail negotiations. The largest organization representing Jewish settlers said it would cease respecting the Israeli government's freeze on building in settlements as of 6 p.m. Wednesday, and resume construction on "hundreds" of new units just hours before the talks are due to begin.

Palestinian leaders have said they will pull out of talks if the building freeze ends.

The Israeli government has pledged to continue enforcing the 10-month freeze at least until it expires on Sept. 26. A senior Israeli official traveling with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington said that the government decision regarding the freeze hadn't changed, but offered no further comment on the settlers' plans.

An Israeli Embassy spokesman in Washington said the incident didn't change the Israeli government's intentions to restart talks—the first direct negotiations in nearly two years. But he said that if such attacks continued, it would make it difficult for Israel to make compromises for peace.

"It impacts but shouldn't derail the talks that are coming to fruition this week," the spokesman, Jonathan Peled, said. "This terror act is a clear sign that until Israeli security needs are addressed, it's going to be very, very difficult for the Israeli government to make concessions in the West Bank."

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Israeli police investigate along a highway near the site of a shooting attack which killed four Israelis near the West Bank Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba, near Hebron Tuesday.

A senior adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas denounced the attack, which occurred just as Mr. Abbas concluded a meeting in Washington with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

"We are against the killing of any kind of civilians from both sides, and we consider this attack a violation that can not be permitted," said the adviser, Nabil Abu Rudeina.

Mr. Abu Rudeina noted that the attack had occurred in an area of the West Bank where the Israeli army has full control and where Palestinian security forces are forbidden from operating—implying the need for greater Palestinian security control in the West Bank.

The militant Islamist organization Hamas controls the Gaza Strip, and retains a significant underground presence in the West Bank, where Mr. Abbas's Fatah party rules.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said the attacks were a "reaction to all the Israeli escalations, violations, and crimes they are committing."

Hamas opposes the peace talks, but has largely refrained from waging attacks against Israel since Israel's December 2008 to January 2009 assault on Gaza, which was sparked by rocket attacks from the Hamas-controlled territory.

Top Israeli military commanders had said they feared the resumption of peace talks could prompt efforts by extremists, both Jewish and Palestinian, to try to mount attacks in an effort to undermine peace efforts.

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Israeli settlers gather in the West Bank near where Palestinian gunmen killed four Jewish settlers on Tuesday. Hamas claimed responsibility.
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The White House, in a statement, condemned the attack, saying it "underscores how far the enemies of peace will go to try to block progress. It is crucial that the parties persevere, keep moving forward even through difficult times."

The attack took place near Hebron, the West Bank's largest city and a historic flash point, where Jewish settlers live in heavily guarded compounds in the heart of the Palestinian city and in settlements ringing the city on land occupied by Israel in the 1967 War.

The shooting appeared to have been carried out by multiple gunmen, who opened fire on the vehicle when it stopped at a road junction in the southern West Bank. The victims were all residents of nearby Jewish settlements in the West Bank and included two men, ages 25 and 40, and two women, also ages 25 and 40, one of whom was pregnant, according to Israeli officials.

The attackers fled the scene. Israeli police and military vehicles cordoned off the area and were searching for the gunmen well into the night, but had yet to name any official suspects.

Shortly after the incident, angry settlers congregated at the scene, shouting "Jewish blood should not be abandoned," and calling on Mr. Netanyahu to return from Washington.
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Naftali Bennet, a spokesman for the Yesha Council, the largest organization that represents Jewish settlers, said: "Tomorrow at 6 p.m., all communities in Judea and Samaria will immediately resume building…We're going to start building everywhere…They murder; we build. From our perspective, the immoral freeze order has expired." Judea and Samaria are the biblical names for the West Bank.

Hebron has been the site of prominent attacks in the past. In 1994, at the height of the Oslo Peace process, an American-born Jewish Israeli settler massacred 29 Palestinians praying in Hebron.

Tuesday's attack was the most deadly incident targeting Israelis since March 2008, when a lone Palestinian gunman opened fire in a crowded library in a Jewish seminary in Jerusalem, killing eight people.

Isolated shootings and other small attacks on Israeli soldiers and settlers in the West Bank have occurred periodically throughout the past year. The most recent deadly attack was a June 14 shooting that left an Israeli police officer dead and four people injured.

The last time an Israeli civilian was killed in the West Bank was Dec. 24, when a Palestinian gunman shot a rabbi living on a settlement near the northern West Bank city of Nablus.

Despite occasional attacks, Israeli security officials say the past year has been one of the most peaceful in Israel's history. Officials credit the improved functioning of Palestinian security forces, the Israeli military's efforts against militants, and the deterrent effect they say was created by Israel's wars against the Palestinian uprising in 2001, Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2006 and Hamas in Gaza in 2009.