It is difficult to see any end to the cycle of violence that has convulsed the Middle East. A series of bomb attacks by terrorists and targeted strikes by the Israeli military are the most recent escalations in a conflict that began nearly two months ago. Yet, there are indications that both sides are growing weary of war. The conflagration is not going to burn itself out, but Israeli and Palestinian leaders seem to recognize that their responses thus far have achieved little. It is time to take a new approach, to return to serious negotiation and commence the slow and difficult process of confidence-building between the two governments.
Eight weeks of unrest have claimed some 270 lives, the vast majority of them Palestinians. In an attempt to halt the violence, Israel has sealed off Palestinian territories and blocked the transfer of funds, a move that ensures that even nonpolitical Palestinians will suffer. The United Nations estimates the blockade prevents $3.4 million from going to the territories each day; total losses to the Palestinian economy have surpassed $425 million.
The violence reached a more terrifying level with the detonation of several bombs against Israeli targets. On Monday, a bomb attack on a Jewish-settler school bus left two adults dead and nine wounded, the majority of them children. Two days later, terrorists set off a car bomb by remote control in the city of Hadera in northern Israel that left at least two dead and more than 50 injured.