THE MIDDLE EAST: Israeli troops continue their daily incursions into Palestinian cities, writes David Horovitz from Jerusalem
A 15-year-old Israeli girl has died of her wounds from a Palestinian suicide bombing in the coastal town of Herzliya. The bomber yesterday blew himself up outside a sandwich shop on a busy shopping street. The blast wounded eight people.
... After yet another suicide bomb, a new opinion poll showed most Palestinians now see the goal of the intifada as the elimination of Israel itself rather than merely forcing an end to Israel's presence in the occupied territories.
Yesterday's bombing was at a restaurant crowded with early-evening customers. By recent standards, however, the casualty toll was relatively light and initial reports said that only part of the explosive device went off.
The bomber, who apparently detonated the device at the entrance because a security guard prevented him from going in, was the only other fatality.
Earlier in the day, a Palestinian man slit the throat of an Israeli policeman directing traffic in East Jerusalem, leaving him seriously injured. Three teenage Israeli schoolboys were hurt, one of them badly, when a bomb exploded in the orchard where they were picking cherries, near to the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba.
The field is owned by Mr Menachem Livni, a former member of a "Jewish underground" which carried out attacks on Palestinians in the 1980s and has been targeted by Palestinian bombers in the past.
"The wounded Israeli teenagers are casualties of a carefully orchestrated Palestinian terror campaign," said an Israeli government spokesman, "which targets Israeli civilians day and night."
In yet more violence yesterday, Palestinian gunmen from a faction which said it was formed to "combat spying", shot dead two fellow Palestinians in Hebron and issued a leaflet alleging that the men were "collaborators" who had helped Israel to track down and kill a local militant leader.
Meanwhile, in the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian was killed in an explosion alongside a border fence, apparently when his own bomb detonated prematurely, and a second man was shot dead by Israeli troops.
The army said he had fired on a civilian car that the troops were escorting.
Israeli troops continued their daily incursions into Palestinian cities, meanwhile, raiding Tulkarm and areas in and around Bethlehem and maintaining their hold on parts of Ramallah, where they say they have intercepted a suicide bomber, found two car-bombs, made numerous arrests, and uncovered several bomb-making factories over the past two days.
Soldiers continue to encircle the headquarters of the Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat.
Israel says the raids are intended solely to thwart further bombings; Palestinian officials say the bitterness they cause is a principal reason for the bombings.
Israeli government officials are expressing satisfaction that, at his talks with the Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, at the White House on Monday, President Bush backed Israel's call for a dramatic new effort by the Palestinian Authority to prevent such attacks as a precondition for substantive peace talks.
Aides to Mr Arafat say that in sanctioning the military raids, Mr Bush is "disappointing those who want to make peace." What is undeniable is the continuing radicalisation of Palestinian public opinion, as underlined by yesterday's opinion poll.
Conducted by an authoritative Jerusalem-based Palestinian polling centre among 1,200 Palestinians in late May and early June, it found that 51 per cent considered the purpose of the intifada to be "liberating all of historic Palestine" - the area between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea which includes sovereign Israel as well as the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Forty-three per cent said the aim was to end Israel's occupation. A similar survey last December, by contrast, had shown a majority (48 per cent) regarding the intifada's goal as ending Israel's presence in the West Bank and Gaza, and a minority (44 per cent) seeing its purpose as the destruction of Israel.
The new survey also found 68 per cent support for suicide bombings, down from 74 per cent in December. It found Mr Arafat to be the politician most trusted by his people - but only by 25 per cent, just 1 per cent more than those who said they trusted no one.
Mr Bush, who left no doubt at the White House on Monday that he did not trust Mr Arafat, is said to be preparing to make a major speech on the Middle East shortly, perhaps next week, and then to dispatch his Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, to the region.
Reports from Washington yesterday indicated that the administration intends to convene an international peace conference late next month. This plan seems hard to reconcile with Mr Bush's statement on Monday that "the conditions aren't even there yet" for a conference, "because no one has confidence in the emerging Palestinian government".