Palestinians And Israelis

WASHINGTON - The United States clearly is turning up the volume with Secretary of State Colin Powell in the Middle East. But the problem is not one of amplification. Rather, it is one of credibility and clarity. Until America finds its voice in the Palestinian-Israeli dispute, it is unlikely that it will be heard in the Arab world. Since the start of the second Palestinian uprising in September 2000, America's central message has been "stop the violence," a key to its longstanding desire for peace and stability in the Middle East.

WASHINGTON - President Bush, acting yesterday to prevent instability throughout the Middle East, ordered Secretary of State Colin L. Powell to the region to broker a truce and prepare the ground for peace talks. The president, intervening more forcefully in the conflict, called on Israel to begin withdrawing its troops and tanks from Palestinian cities in the West Bank and demanded a halt to Palestinian terror attacks. "Storms of violence cannot go on," he said. "Enough is enough." Bush insisted that the Palestinian Authority and Arab states act to deny aid or encouragement to suicide bombers, whom he said are blocking the way to peace and depriving young Palestinians and Israelis alike of a better future.

ORKNEY SPRINGS, Va. - I write as a liberal, dovish, land-for-peace American Jew to express my dismay at the coverage by the American news media - especially the more liberal media - of the past nearly 18 months of violence between the Palestinians and Israelis. These media look at the surface of day-to-day events and consistently miss the larger context that reveals what it all signifies. The mainstream media are blind because they have no memory. Like the protagonist of the film Memento, our news people meet the actors in this Middle East conflict every day for the first time.

JERUSALEM - The promenade snakes around the edge of a cliff in the neighborhood called Abu Tor, skirting woods known as the Peace Forest and spacious homes with postcard views of the walled Old City and the deep Hinnom Valley. It is a neighborhood divided between Israelis living in one enclave and Palestinians in another. The stone walkway is where the two peoples sometimes mingle and where tourists come for the views. And here, Moran Amit, a 25-year-old university student strolling in the woods with her boyfriend, was chased down and stabbed to death Feb. 11. Police blamed a 14-year-old Palestinian resident of Abu Tor, and shot and killed him as he tried to flee.

JERUSALEM - In almost any other city, it would be just a wall with a bulge. Almost anywhere else, the wall would be repaired without people taking notice. This wall, however, is part of Jerusalem's most disputed religious site, may be in danger of collapse and has sparked another argument between Palestinians and Israelis. A bulge 35 feet long has appeared in the southern retaining wall built 2,000 years ago during the reign of King Herod at the base of the Temple Mount, known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary.

RAMALLAH, West Bank - Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat urged an end to "armed activities" last night, telling his people in a televised address that attacking Israel only gives Israeli leaders an excuse to escalate their "savage war" in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. "Everybody should respect the cease-fire," Arafat said in the half-hour address on the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, a day of feasts marking the end of the monthlong Ramadan fast. "Today, I am reiterating my call for a comprehensive cessation to all the armed activities."

JERUSALEM - The target was a Palestinian named Mohammed Ayoub Sidr, a member of the Islamic Jihad who is allegedly linked to a attack Nov. 4 in Jerusalem that killed two Israelis. An Israeli army helicopter carried out the strike, firing at least two missiles yesterday at a car in which Sidr was riding when it was stopped at a traffic light on a steep road near Hebron University in the West Bank. The explosion demolished the car but did not have the intended effect. Sidr, 26, was carried away with only minor injuries, while a toddler and young boy died.

PHILADELPHIA - Colin Powell finally gave his long-awaited speech on Mideast peace Nov. 19, but it's hard to figure out why he bothered. The whole purpose of the speech - originally scheduled for mid-September but postponed after Sept. 11 - was to signal that the Bush team was ready for a serious try at restarting the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Mr. Powell's speech was repeatedly delayed. Although the administration probably would have liked to let it die, the green light finally was given because our Arab allies were begging us to say something.

JERUSALEM - The shooting death of 11-year old Khalil al-Mughrabi in the Gaza Strip in July went largely unremarked upon there and in Israel. He seemed just one more casualty in the daily battles between Palestinians and Israelis. At the time, the Israeli army told reporters that soldiers in the Gaza Strip came under fire from rocks and grenades thrown by Palestinians, who were scattered by "live gunfire into an open area distant from the rioters." The army said it had no evidence anyone had been wounded.

WASHINGTON - One of Colin L. Powell's urgent tasks after the Sept. 11 attacks was to demand help from Israel - not to join a war on terrorism, but to seek a truce with Yasser Arafat, the man Prime Minister Ariel Sharon likens to Osama bin Laden. This pressure from the U.S. secretary of state jarred Israelis, who have been repeated victims of terror and see themselves as front-line fighters against the scourge. Rather than being cast as part of the solution, they were left to infer that because of their conflict with the Palestinians, they were part of the problem.