Editorial: This isn’t a time to look away

Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2002 | 8:50 a.m.

Palestinian attacks against Israelis on Sunday resulted in the killing of 13 people. In the deadliest act of terrorism on Sunday, a Palestinian blew himself up on a bus in northern Israel, killing nine other passengers and injuring 37. It's difficult to look at the gruesome pictures from the suicide bombings, yet at the same time it's critical that we do so and read the eyewitness accounts of the devastation. Otherwise we wouldn't know what horror was witnessed by Avraham Freed, who owns a nearby restaurant: "There was a lot of screaming, horrible screaming inside the bus," Freed said. "I saw one person on the ground next to the bus -- bodies, parts of bodies, people jumping through the windows." Hanan Sofer, one of the first paramedics to arrive at the bombing, told The New York Times: "I have been working in the field for 22 years and have never seen suc h an atrocious scene."

Not only is it essential that we grasp the extent of the devastation, but we also need to remind ourselves of the callous disregard for life felt by so many Palestinians. On Sunday nearly 4,000 Palestinians in Gaza City celebrated the bus bombing, even handing out sweets to mark the occasion. The latest wave of terrorism is retaliation for Israel's killing of Salah Shehadeh, a Hamas militant responsible for orchestrating suicide bombings against Israel. And while 14 other Palestinians were killed along with Shehadeh in the Israeli's July 22 raid, their deaths were accidental, unlike the civilians purposely killed by the Palestinian terrorists. Another reason why Palestinian civilians were killed during the Israeli airstrike is that Shehadeh cowardly sought refuge among civilians, trying to create a "human shield" of protection.

Even though Israel is under siege, Egypt is suggesting that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat get together for peace talks. To no one's surprise Sharon's office didn't show any interest on Monday. There is no incentive, nor reason, for Israelis to negotiate with terrorists whose only objective is to destroy the state of Israel. Sunday's terrorism, yet again, proved that graphically.