Murderers of Peace

By LISA BEYER/JERUSALEM

It ought to have been a wonderful day for Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat. On Friday the Israeli and Palestinian leaders, along with Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, were named the recipients of this year's Nobel Peace Prize, the highest trophy politicians can hope for. Yet there was no jubilation in Tel Aviv or Gaza City. The honor had been spoiled by tortured and ultimately fruitless attempts by both Palestinians and Israelis to avoid a tragedy. The poignance and pitilessness of lives well below the heights of power had overshadowed political priorities, and the 13-month effort to implement peace was thrown into its worst crisis.

The drama began on an unseasonably balmy Sunday afternoon as Nahshon Waxman, 19, a corporal in the Israeli army, was heading for his girlfriend's house. Hitchhiking in central Israel, he was picked up by activists from the militant Islamic movement Hamas. Two days later they named their ransom: the release from Israeli jails of their spiritual leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin and 200 other Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners. Waxman was hardly the first Israeli to be taken hostage. Fundamentalists from the West Bank and Gaza Strip have seized nine others during the past five years, killing all of them. But there was a difference this time. The kidnappers had distributed a wrenching videotape of a terrified Waxman asking the government to meet his captors' demands. On tape the youth looked dazed and frightened. "I ask you to do all you can so I get out of here alive," Waxman said. Behind him stood a hooded Hamas gunman who put his hand on the Israeli's shoulder. "If my parents are watching me, I am all right now." But, he added, "if their prisoners are not released, they will kill me."

The image provoked an unusually fiery and emotional response in Israel. On Thursday 50,000 worshippers gathered at Jerusalem's Western Wall to pray for the young man's safety. Waxman's mother Esther, an English teacher who emigrated to Israel in 1969 from New York City, reminded Washington that Nahshon held dual citizenship and pleaded for the U.S. to "get my son released." Even Sheik Yassin, the incarcerated and quadriplegic spiritual leader of Hamas, declared on Israeli television, "Killing him is not useful, and our religion orders us to take care of him and his life."

Another event had contributed to the outpouring of Israeli sentiment. The kidnapping occurred on the same day that two Hamas gunmen, armed with assault rifles, rampaged through a popular restaurant district in Jerusalem, mortally wounding two patrons and injuring another 13 before being shot down by Israeli police. The attack struck at the core of Israelis' sense of personal security because it took place in one of Jerusalem's principal fun spots.

Rabin was already frustrated by persistent militant attacks despite Israel's / withdrawal from the self-rule zones in the Gaza Strip and Jericho last May. Islamic extremists, who oppose Arafat's peace agreement with Israel and hope to sabotage it through violence, are concentrated in the Strip and use the newly autonomous area as a sanctuary. Says a Hamas activist in Gaza City: "Before, the Israeli army would chase our fighters, besiege their hideouts and catch them. Now those fighting the jihad can attack and then go back to their homes." Arafat's administration has been reluctant to confront the militants because these groups enjoy widespread approval among Palestinians for their anti-Israel exploits. One of Arafat's Cabinet members confides that his boss "has avoided the real job of cleaning up the extremists in Gaza."

Rabin insisted that his information made it clear that Waxman was being held in Gaza, over which Arafat was responsible. And so the Israeli Prime Minister made the kidnapping an issue of Arafat's authority and good faith and held the Palestinian leader "completely responsible" for the soldier's well-being. A further expansion of Palestinian self-rule, he said, rested on Waxman's safe release. Even as Israel's leader congratulated his Palestinian counterpart on the Nobel Prize, he issued a warning: "If there will not be security, there will also not be peace."

Rabin warned that Waxman's death would have "the gravest possible effect" on future Israeli-Palestinian relations: Israeli government officials suggested they might freeze plans to expand Palestinian authority in the West Bank. To highlight the threat, Rabin withdrew his delegation from talks in Cairo aimed at broadening self-rule. This was a marked departure for the Israeli leader, who previously had insisted on keeping negotiations going despite violence between the parties. U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher joined in pressuring Arafat, not only in the name of peace but for the sake of an American life. Arafat was motivated himself by a sense that the hostage taking was intended by Hamas to embarrass him.

Launching an unprecedented search for the captive soldier, the Palestinian chief mobilized virtually his entire 9,500-strong security force in the Gaza Strip, setting up new roadblocks, searching hideouts and rounding up 300 Hamas activists. But they were shaking the wrong tree. On Friday morning the Israelis received intelligence that the captive was in a house in Bir-Nabala, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, just three miles north of his parents' home in Ramot, a Jerusalem suburb. Throughout the day, Rabin said later, the Israelis considered a tentative Hamas proposal to exchange Waxman for Sheik Yassin, whom the government has considered freeing anyway because of his failing health. According to Rabin, the offer was never made firm by Hamas, but the militants did agree to extend their deadline by 24 hours.

And then, at about 8 p.m., an hour before the original deadline was to expire, Israeli special forces attacked the house in Bir-Nabala, blowing open the doors with explosives and charging inside. One Israeli soldier died in the fire fight and 12 were injured. Three kidnappers were killed and another was captured, along with an alleged accessory. According to Israeli officials, Waxman was found inside the house, bound in chains and shot by his captors at point-blank range in the neck and chest. Army sources believe Waxman was executed during the siege or just before, perhaps after the gunmen saw the special forces approach.

At a press conference later that night, Rabin continued to press his point that Arafat must assume responsibility for controlling Hamas violence. "We know the activities of these murderers were directed from Gaza," Rabin said. "The peace process depends upon how well the Palestinian authority prevents the Gaza Strip from becoming a haven for terrorists."

Even Arafat's own ministers acknowledge that the Palestinian authority could do more to rein in Hamas. Said one: "We have functioned in a way that gives the Israelis a reason not to trust us and Hamas no reason to fear us." Still, the failure of Israel's efforts to save Waxman underscores how difficult that chore is. Despite its superior firepower, an extensive intelligence network and a willingness to use draconian measures, the Israeli army was never able to subdue Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Now it expects Arafat's far less sophisticated force to achieve that goal.

Arafat is also burdened with heavy political considerations. "Already people feel that the Palestinian authority has become an instrument of the Israelis," says Ghassan Khatib, who monitors Palestinian public opinion. An all-out assault on Hamas would jeopardize its credibility further. "Is a Palestinian civil war the price of Israel's concept of peace?" the East Jerusalem newspaper An-Nahar asked in an editorial on Friday.

Nevertheless, though the drama ended fatally for Waxman, the story's other hostage -- the delicate negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians -- may yet survive. In the end, Rabin's test for Arafat did not materialize: Waxman had not been imprisoned within the Gaza Strip. In the aftermath of the saga, progress toward a full peace may be slowed as Israel insists that Arafat crack down generally on Palestinian extremists. The process was shaken, but, despite the tragedy, it was no longer imperiled. At least until the next test comes.

With reporting by Jamil Hamad and Robert Slater/Jerusalem and Ann M. Simmons with Christopher