At the Aqaba Summit there was a glimmer of hope that violence might end. It hasn't, writes Graham Usher from Jerusalem Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) is not the first Palestinian leader to realise that things viewed from the diplomatic peaks look different in the valleys, especially when the depths are as killing as the occupied territories. Less than a week after he received the accolade of "peacemaker" from George Bush at the Aqaba Summit the new Palestinian prime minister has been brought violently to earth: first by blanket Palestinian opposition to his equation of armed resistance with "terrorism", then by renewed Palestinian attacks on soldiers in the occupied territories and finally by Israel's attempted assassination on 10 June of Abdul-Aziz Al- Rantisi, the most influential Palestinian political leader Israel has tried to kill in the 34-month Intifada. Rantisi escaped the hit relatively unscathed. A man, woman and child were less fortunate, killed by the shrapnel from five Israeli rockets that reduced Rantisi's car to a morass of flames and debris. In response Hamas fired homemade missiles into Sederot, an Israeli town on Gaza's northern border, injuring five. In retaliation Israel launched rockets at Gaza's Jabalyia refugee camp, killing three civilians and wounding 35. The diplomatic fabric so delicately stitched at Sharm El-Sheikh and Aqaba came undone in the rubble of the most densely populated camp in the occupied territories. Israel issued a slew of justifications for the attack on Rantisi, ranging from his "personal responsibility" for the cross-factional ambush that left four Israeli soldiers dead in Gaza on 8 June to the "fear" that he was about to topple Abbas's new Palestinian government. Few bought the goods, including the Americans. Despite "explanations" from Israel Bush remained "deeply troubled" by the timing of the assaults in Gaza, fearing they would "undermine efforts by the Palestinian authorities and others to bring an end to terrorist attacks", said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer on 10 June. Abbas went further. Denouncing the "terrorist and criminal attack" on Rantisi, he said it was "intended to obstruct and sabotage the political process", and called on the US to move to prevent further Israeli military actions. Abbas is in need of all the American movement he can get. Since Aqaba he has been assailed by Palestinians of every political stripe for his decision to rehearse the American script of denouncing "terrorism against Israelis wherever they might be" at the expense of the Palestinian one, which says peace will come only with Israel's full withdrawal from the territories it occupied in the 1967 War, including East Jerusalem, and a "just" solution of the Palestinian refugee question on the bases of UN resolutions. At a press conference in Ramallah on 9 June Abbas conceded his Aqaba speech might have been "misunderstood". He reaffirmed his commitment to Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state, the right of return for Palestinian refugees and that all Jewish settlements, "illegal" and otherwise, would be removed from conquered Palestinian territory. He also urged Hamas to resume the talks on a Palestinian cease-fire the Islamists had called off after Aqaba, since "for us the only alternative to dialogue is more dialogue." Later that day there were signs Hamas might respond to the call. Then came the attack on Rantisi. Talk of a cease-fire now is imaginary, say Palestinians. Why did Ariel Sharon and Israel's Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz choose now to take out Rantisi? Some Israeli analysts believe it was meant to appease the settlers outraged by his decision to dismantle a dozen or so "unauthorised" settlement outposts in the West Bank. Others say Sharon was alarmed at Aqaba by the indulgence Bush showed Abbas's argument that he must first get a truce with the Palestinian militias before taking any steps to disarm them. Both Sharon and Mofaz are resolutely opposed to any licence being granted to the notion of a Palestinian hudna. Still others believe that the roadmap has arrived on his desk too soon and that, aware of the fractures it has caused in Likud and certain that American anger will pass, he wants to stall its journey the better to reshape the road according to his terms and his map. Whatever his motives Sharon is aware of the price. In the aftermath of the attack on Rantisi Hamas announced that it was activating its military "cells to strike the Zionists everywhere on our occupied homeland", including within Israel. Few believe the Islamists will not be as good as their word, whatever pressures mounted against them by Egypt, the PA and perhaps America. Like Sharon and his unrelenting military solutions to the conflict, Hamas have a track record of saying what they mean and doing what they say. As good as their word As Al-Ahram Weekly was going to print yesterday, Hamas seemed to have kept its word -- more swiftly perhaps than anyone could have expected. An Israeli bus exploded at around 5:30pm as it was driving down Jafa Rd. in the centre of Jerusalem, almost certainly as a result of a suicide bombing. Nine people were killed in the attack, according to Israeli police, in addition to 53 injured, eight of whom were believed to be in serious condition. Soon after, Al-Rantisi issued a statement implicitly claiming responsibility for the bombing. "This is the answer to Sharon," the Hamas leader was quoted as declaring.
