It is the instrument of cowards. It kills the innocent not by accident, but by design. And its design in the Middle East is to murder the peace process by shredding security and destroying the hope for peace. We do not yet know the identity of the bombers at Mahane Yehuda. But we can be sure this crime was not a random event.
Terrorists often strike when they believe the parties are poised to make progress.
It may be more than coincidence that this latest attack occurred shortly after the announcement that negotiations of the interim committees set up by the Hebron agreement would resume, and on the eve of an American effort to share ideas on how to break the current impasse. We have come too far in the process of Arab-Israeli peacemaking to allow the vultures of violence to shape the region's future. The stakes are too high. Past sacrifices have been too great. And the peoples of the region have been burdened for too long by bloodshed and strife.