Steve Quayle News Alerts

July 18, 2002

Germany's foreign minister Thursday condemned the double suicide bombing in Tel Aviv of the day before, insisting that the attempt to "torpedo" new peace efforts must not be allowed to succeed.

Joschka Fischer noted that the bombing, in which two foreign workers and an Israeli were killed, followed a New York meeting of the 'quartet' policy planning group, comprising Russian, American, European Union and United Nations officials.

"This is a deliberate and inhuman attempt to torpedo these efforts," Fischer said in a statement. "Terror must not once again decide the course of events," he added, calling on all involved to pursue with "all the more determination" efforts to end the violence.

Bush condemns attack
U.S. President George W. Bush also condemned the dual suicide bombing which came only hours after he renewed his call for a new Palestinian leadership.

Bush said after the attack in Tel Aviv's old central bus station that peace could not be built on a "platform of violence against innocents."

"These terrorist acts are also attacks on our efforts to restore hope to the Palestinian people... As I said on June 24, the hopes of a few cannot be allowed to hold the hopes of many hostage," Bush said in a written statement.

The Palestinian Authority denounced the bomb attack but charged that Israel was responsible for "creating by this the suitable atmosphere for such operations which we condemn and reject."

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan also condemned the bombings "in the strongest possible terms" and urged the parties involved not to let it derail the search for peace.

"The international community and the parties must remain steadfast in their determination not to allow the perpetrators of violent and senseless acts to derail efforts" toward peace, he said, according to UN deputy spokeswoman Hua Jing.

Bush renews demand for new Palestinian leadership
Bush expressed optimism Wednesday about progress toward peace in the Middle East, but renewed his demand for a new leadership to replace Arafat, and showed no interest in working with the Palestinian leader in a new role.

Bush sidestepped a question about whether he could work with a Palestinian government in which Arafat retained some leadership role. "The issue is much bigger than a person, as far as I'm concerned," he said at a news conference with Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski. "Mr. Arafat has failed to deliver; I still feel the same way... I know the Palestinian people will be better served by new leadership."

Bush said it was critical to bring about changes to financial and military institutions that have helped Arafat retain power. "Those institutional changes are essential to the evolution of a state," Bush said, referring to his proposal for a provisional Palestinian state. "I do believe we're making progress to this end."

"Mr. Arafat would like the whole issue to be about him - that's the way it's been in the past," Bush said. "Except when you analyze his record, he has failed the Palestinian people. He just has. That's reality."

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