The cycle of bloodshed between Israelis and Palestinians is becoming ever more difficult to break. On Tuesday, just when Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was meeting U.S. President George W. Bush in Washington, a Palestinian suicide bomb attack blew up a billiard hall in the Tel Aviv suburb of Rishon Letzion, killing the bomber and 16 others and wounding more than 50 people.
Violence begets violence. Retaliation invites retaliation. The cycle must be broken if permanent peace is take hold. For now, however, the prospects are anything but reassuring. Tensions are rising again, with Prime Minister Sharon vowing to continue military operations in Palestinian-ruled territories.
The seemingly endless carnage threatens the nascent moves toward building a structure of peace, including a proposed Middle East peace conference this summer. The need to hold such a conference testifies to the fact that mediation by the United States alone is no longer sufficient to end the bloody cycle. What is needed is forceful intervention by the United Nations, including the dispatch of an international security force.