KARNEI SHOMRON (West Bank): A devastating wave of Palestinian attacks on the symbols of Israeli military occupation - a Jewish settlement, an army base and a road block - struck Israel to its core this weekend, badly shaking its faith in the warrior prime minister, Ariel Sharon.

In this Jewish settlement on Sunday, sobbing girls linked arms and quietly sang at a vigil for two teenagers blown up by a suicide bomber. But the adults of this West Bank outpost were overcome by anger - much of it directed against Sharon, who they say has failed to live up to his 50-year legacy of crushing Israel’s Arab enemies.

“As of right now, what I see from the results is that this man has failed,” said Bob Duchanov, a builder from New York who has lived in Karnei Shomron for 17 years. “There is no security in the country.” As if on cue, three hours later came another suicide bombing which, though thwarted, deepened a feeling of unease amid a spate of attacks that have killed seven Israelis since Thursday night.

In Ma’ariv’s weekend opinion polls, some 49 per cent of Israelis agreed, saying the “national leadership has lost control of the security situation”. However, 44 per cent disagreed, reflecting what the paper’s political analyst, Hemi Shalev, called “steadily growing confusion” as Sharon fails to deliver a political or a military solution to 17 months of bloodshed.

The attacks suggest new levels of sophistication by Palestinian fighters, targeting soldiers and Jewish settlements - which are considered illegal under international law - rather than civilians in Israeli cities in an apparent attempt to mute international criticism. Palestinian fighters magnified doubts about Sharon’s strategy for dealing with the uprising, which includes assassinations, tank invasions of the West Bank and Gaza, and the bombing of Palestinian security installations by F-16 warplanes.

Israeli helicopters fired missiles on security installations in the West Bank city of Nablus early on Sunday, and tanks roared into the Al Buriej refugee camp in Gaza on Saturday, killing three Palestinian police. In the West Bank city of Jenin, a Hamas commander was blown up by a car bomb.

For the adults here, it was not enough. “After more than a year of this, we should have been able to see results,” said Yitzhak Shwartz, whose photography shop was gutted by the blast. “Sharon has no plan. The job of this government is to defend its citizens and it is not doing that. It doesn’t solve our problems to blow up empty buildings. It does not do anything.”

For many here, there was a disturbing synchronicity to events. As Keren Shatsky waited for her friends here, barely an hour’s drive away in Tel Aviv the Israeli left was mustering for a peace demonstration.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service.