Three Dead in Suicide Bomb Attack

TEL AVIV: Celebrations for the Jewish holiday Purim were marred today by a suicide bombing attack that killed three and injured 43, many of them children, at a downtown Tel Aviv cafe. The bomber, claimed as a member by Hamas, was also killed by the nail-studded explosive device. Israel responded to the attack by barring Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip from entering Israel. The attack could further strain the tenuous peace between Arabs and Jews already tested by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's insistence on building new Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem. The bombing, the first such attack in over a year, was condemned by Yasser Arafat, but Netanyahu blamed the Palestinian leader for the incident, charging that Arafat had done nothing to discourage militants. This critique may be credible in some respects, says TIME's Johanna McGeary. "While Arafat has publicly stood up and made pleas for nonviolent, peaceful protests, he has also allowed dozens of Hamas activists, including their operations chief, to go free. So while he didn't publicly give anybody the green light to engage in violence, he didn't have to. Once out and about, it wasn't hard for him to figure out what these militants were going to do." While Arafat denies responsibility, other groups are unwilling to give up on the idea of reclaiming Jerusalem by force. "Jerusalem will not be restored by negotiations," Hamas leader Ibrahim Maqadmeh told a roaring crowd of 50,000 in Gaza, "but only with holy war, whatever the sacrifices." Netanyahu seems unwilling to back down, telling reporters he could not be intimidated as he vowed to "deal with" the killers. To many, the tough talk signals the end of the hard-won peace in the region. Asked if the peace process was dead, Hanan Ashwari, a leading Palestinian official, told CNN "if it isn't, it's on its dying bed."