Israel eases targeting of terrorists' kin

Mohammed Ajouri is a 68-year-old grandfather, but he is young enough to be part of Israel's new deterrent campaign against suicide bombers.

The arrest of Mr. Ajouri and the demolition of his three-story house here on Friday is Israel's response to the alleged actions of his son, a Fatah militia leader. It signals a tough new Israeli policy unveiled after two devastating Palestinian attacks last week.

Israel's plan, softened on Sunday, is to target "complicit" families of Palestinian suicide bombers. The aim is to persuade would-be bombers there will be a heavy personal price for their actions.

"If there is one thing an Arab cares about, it's his mother and father," says Israel's deputy internal security minister Gideon Ezra.

Mr. Ajouri is the father of Ali al Ajouri whom Israel says is responsible for dispatching a double suicide bombing team to Tel Aviv last week that killed three people in addition to the bombers.

The Israeli cabinet has endorsed the idea that it can save lives if it expels relatives of bombers from the West Bank to the isolated and enclosed Gaza Strip.

But the plan has met with a stiff international criticism and legal obstacles. On Sunday, Israel altered its criterion for expulsion of any family member. Only relatives "complicit or otherwise involved in the criminal terrorism of suicide attacks, including aiding and abetting" are to be deported, according to the foreign ministry.

The Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz reported yesterday that the deportation threat was working. Unnamed military sources said that two Palestinian families had turned in potential suicide bombers.

Even so, some Israeli analysts question the value of the tactic. "After two years in which there has been so much friction between the two sides, the desire for revenge is so great that this will not make any difference," says Reuven Paz, director of the Project for Research of Islamic Movements in Herzliya, a Tel Aviv suburb. "It may be a good method to calm down the Israeli public, but it will not deter terrorists."

The Shin Bet, the Israeli security service, is reportedly still interrogating 21 relatives of wanted men from the Nablus area.

If Mr. Ajouri is an example, most relatives of bombers, like most Palestinians, sympathize with "resistance activities" against Israelis, generally viewing them as a way of striking back against the army. Until four months ago, Ali Ajouri used to sometimes come to visit the family here, say relatives. His two brothers, Kifah and Ahmed, were also arrested Friday.

"Ali's father loved [his son's actions] and hated them," says a relative. "He knew that it would destroy the work of all those years of building the house. Now we cannot decide whether we are proud or sad."

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