Hatred Stalks the Peace Process : But parties are determined in wake of massacre

The critical task facing Israeli and Palestinian authorities now is to use every means at their disposal to try to make the latest terrorist outrage that has occurred in the long war between their two peoples the last.

It is vital that the political fanatics, the religious zealots, the armed lunatics on both sides be disarmed and watched closely not simply because the delicate peace process that has been showing encouraging signs of progress must be defended but, fundamentally and imperatively, to prevent any more innocent blood from being shed.

Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s government, condemning the killings in the strongest terms, has taken an important step to tighten what clearly were inadequate controls over those Israelis who have made no secret of their fierce opposition to a peace agreement with the Palestinians. Just a few hours after the atrocity at the Ibrahim Mosque in Hebron the Cabinet acted to seal off the nearby large Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba. Residents, said one Cabinet minister, would have to have permission from the military from now on to leave the settlement, one of the most militant on the West Bank. It was from Kiryat Arba that an American immigrant doctor named Baruch Goldstein, armed with an assault rifle and an abundance of ammunition, set out early Friday morning on a self-chosen mission that would result in the slaughter and wounding of scores of Palestinian Muslims as they prayed.

President Clinton announced soon after that Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization had agreed to move their talks from Egypt back to Washington, and to intensify the negotiations in hope of reaching a prompt agreement for the first phase of Palestinian interim self-rule. The peace process, in short, won’t be sidetracked by the fearful butchery carried out in Hebron. Aiding that decision may have been the good-faith offer from Israel to compensate the families of the mosque casualties.

But the horror of the Hebron massacre, like the horror of earlier wanton terrorist killings that have taken lives on both sides, won’t soon be forgotten. Deir Yassin, Lod Airport, Munich, Kiryat Shmona, Maalot, Rishon Lezion . . . the terrorist incidents these names denote may be largely unknown or forgotten by most of the world, but they remain part of the modern historical memory of virtually every Israeli and Palestinian. The job of the peacemakers, more urgent now than ever, is to strive to cut loose from the legacy of hatred and distrust that these incidents represent.