The price of peace in Israeli cities

Israeli tactics collide with peace process

Suicide bombings in Israel have dropped off so significantly that the nation's security officials now dare to speak openly of success. But the very steps they are taking to thwart bombers appear to collide head on with the government's agenda of achieving peace with the Palestinians.

It is a classic military-political dilemma. The progress in stopping suicide bombers, the vast majority of whom cross into Israel from the West Bank, has brought enough quiet for Israel to resume peace talks with the Palestinian leadership there.

But the current calm is fragile, and to maintain it Israeli security officials say they must continue their nightly arrests and sometimes deadly raids in the heart of the West Bank - tactics at odds with a peace process that envisions a separate Palestinian state, an eventual Israeli withdrawal from much of the West Bank and, in the meantime, a gradual handover of authority to the Palestinian police.

Peace reigns in the cities of Israel, where suicide bombings have dropped off dramatically. Whatever the criticism, Israeli tactics of collective punishment, including the withholding of tax revenues, cutting off diesel supply for power stations and obstructing medical aid to sick Palestinians have worked.