JERUSALEM — Bomb blasts killed two Israelis and wounded more than a dozen others Thursday, as Palestinian and Israeli leaders struggled with peace proposals put forward by President Clinton that would require painful concessions on both sides.
Caretaker Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak made good on his threat not to attend a planned summit in Egypt with Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, opting out after the Palestinians detailed two dozen reservations to Clinton's plan. Instead, Arafat met with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and said he will continue to go over the U.S. proposals with other Arab governments.
In Washington, Clinton bluntly warned Arafat that unless he accepts the "parameters" of his plan, the U.S.-mediated peace process will come to an end--perhaps for years to come.
"There is no point in our talking further unless both sides agree to accept the parameters that I've laid out," Clinton told a White House news conference.
Asked if the steps he outlined in a White House meeting Saturday with Israeli and Palestinian envoys were open to further negotiations, Clinton said: "No. They're the parameters. The negotiations, in other words, have to occur within them."
As diplomatic efforts faltered, two pipe bombs exploded on a Tel Aviv bus at midday. News reports said 14 Israelis were wounded in the seaside city, which has been largely untouched by three months of violent unrest that has claimed more than 350 lives, most of them Palestinian.
A few hours after the Tel Aviv blast, a bomb blew up by the side of a road in the southern Gaza Strip, killing two Israelis and injuring two. Few details were immediately available, but police said that one of the Israelis was trying to dismantle the device when it exploded. No organization claimed responsibility for the attacks, but a spokesman for the militant Islamic movement Hamas praised the incidents. Hamas rejects peace negotiations with Israel.
"This reprehensible attack against innocent civilians will not deter us," Barak said in a statement issued after the Tel Aviv bus bombing. Vowing to hunt down the perpetrators, Barak said the attack "will not dampen our wish for peace and attempts to achieve it and end the conflict between ourselves and the Palestinians." He later reimposed a military closure in the West Bank and Gaza to keep Palestinians from entering Israel.
