The latest suicide bombing in Jerusalem, which killed 18 people and injured many more on Tuesday night, once more highlights the extreme difficulties of trust and implementation facing the international road map towards an Israeli-Palestinian peace.
The atrocity was claimed by the Islamist movement Hamas, who said it was carried out in retaliation for the killing of one of its leaders last week by Israeli troops. Hamas says its ceasefire, announced on June 29th, will nonetheless continue, while the Palestinian leader, Mr Mahmoud Abbas, has condemned the attack and vowed to pursue those responsible for it. The Israeli cabinet has cancelled its withdrawal from four Palestinian towns and has now to decide whether the atrocity will fundamentally change its reluctant commitment to the road map.
In making its decision the cabinet, and all concerned with the road map's integrity, should pay full attention to the stated reasons for this latest suicide bombing. It was carried out by Abdel-Hamid Mask, a 29-year-old imam from Hebron and the father of two children, who disguised himself as a religious Jew to board the Jerusalem bus carrying worshippers from the Wailing Wall. He said he acted in retaliation for the death of a relative, Mohammed Seder, an Islamic Jihad militant and community leader, in a shoot-out with Israeli troops last week in Hebron. After his death a leader of the organisation said it was "a big violation of the ceasefire, but our commitment to the ceasefire does not mean we will not answer this attack." Just two days before this two Palestinian activists blew themselves up, killing two Israelis and injuring a dozen others in retaliation for bloody Israeli raids in the northern West Bank town of Nablus.
This pattern of attack and retaliation has become so engrained in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that an Israeli cabinet which genuinely wants to see the road map succeed must ensure its armed forces also adhere to the ceasefire in place for nearly two months. Known as the "hudna", the Arab word for ceasefire, it has brought a rough and ready relaxation of tension which has allowed some halting steps towards reciprocal moves to disengage. There are suspicions that the Israeli army opposes the road map and uses such security raids as a means to undermine it. Palestinian spokesmen say it is quite unrealistic for them to control and disarm Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups when they do not control cities such as Hebron.
To make this point is in no way to excuse Tuesday's dreadful suicide bombing atrocity in Jerusalem, nor to underestimate the need for Mr Abbas to move against those responsible. The road map sets out a series of mutual steps to be taken towards more substantive negotiations and as a way to build trust between the two sides. It relies on international pressure from the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia to encourage them. That will now be needed as never before if the road map is to survive.