Bomb attacks further dampen peace efforts

Friday, December 29th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

JERUSALEM (AP) _ Israel has closed off the West Bank and Gaza Strip in response to bomb attacks that killed two Israeli soldiers, wounded 16 other people and further hampered efforts to forge a peace agreement with the Palestinians.

Prime Minister Ehud Barak closed the heavily Palestinian territories as of Friday, banning Palestinians from entering Israel.

Israel had just begun relaxing a closure imposed shortly after the current round of violence erupted three months ago, allowing 16,000 Palestinian workers to travel to their jobs in Israel. Now those permits have been canceled, the military said.

Also, Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza will not be permitted to attend Friday services at the Al Aqsa Mosque in the Old City of Jerusalem. During the just-completed Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Israel allowed a few busloads of Palestinians to enter Jerusalem for Friday prayers.

Israel's strict new measures were sparked by Thursday's deadly attacks.

In Tel Aviv, two small bombs exploded in the back of a city bus on a main street, injuring 14 people, two seriously. Hours later, two Israeli soldiers died and two others were hurt in a bomb blast in the Gaza Strip.

The violence erupted as both Israel and the Palestinians balked at crucial provisions of American peace proposals they were handed last week. That drew a frustrated response from President Clinton, who hopes to broker a peace deal before he leaves office Jan. 20.

``There is no point in our talking further unless both sides accept the parameters I have laid out,'' Clinton said in Washington.

Officials said Clinton had suggested giving the Palestinians a state in 95 percent of the West Bank and all of Gaza as well as sovereignty over Arab neighborhoods and a disputed holy site in Jerusalem. In exchange for Israeli concessions in Jerusalem, the Palestinians would curtail demands for Palestinian refugees and their descendants to be allowed to return to their original homes in Israel.

After initially indicating they might go along with the plan, Israeli officials expressed reservations Thursday, reflecting growing opposition among Israelis to handing key parts of Jerusalem over to the Palestinians.

Israel television reported that army commander Lt. Gen. Shaul Mofaz told Israel's Cabinet that the plan would leave Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem isolated and vulnerable to attack, and the military less able to defend civilian populations.

The two bomb attacks seemed certain to harden Israeli attitudes even more. While the Tel Aviv bus bombing appeared to be a relatively simple sabotage attempt aimed at civilians, the Gaza attack was more sophisticated, aiming at security forces.

Security forces were dismantling a bomb on the border between Gaza and Israel when a second bomb was set off, apparently by remote control, killing an army officer and a paramilitary border policeman and wounding two others, the military said.

Barak pledged that Israel would hunt down the perpetrators, but he would not be deterred from seeking peace.

Barak faces elections Feb. 6 and trails his opponent, Ariel Sharon, in the polls. Experts say Barak needs a peace agreement if he is to have a chance of re-election.

A poll published Friday showed Sharon with 45 percent support and Barak with 24 percent. The rest were undecided. The Gallup poll in the Maariv daily questioned 597 Israeli adults and quoted a 4.5 percent margin of error.

Sharon charges that Barak is giving away Israel's strategic assets with his offers to the Palestinians to ensure his political survival. ``Barak's program will not bring peace,'' he said. ``Unfortunately, it might bring the opposite.''

And while Israel couched its response to Clinton's proposals in positive terms, the Palestinians clearly expressed their negative feelings.

Israel's Cabinet said the proposals are a basis for further negotiations, if the Palestinians also accept them. But the Palestinians gave the U.S. a letter reiterating their traditional stand, demanding sovereignty over all of the West Bank and Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem and insisting that all refugees be allowed to return to Israel.

Egypt canceled a summit meeting with Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat after the Palestinian response.

Later, some Arab leaders urged Arafat to show flexibility. Egypt and Saudi Arabia indicated some support for Clinton's ideas, and Arafat pledged to take their views into account.