It is question rarely asked by Israel's Jews, and almost never in public. But yesterday one member of the Israeli parliament, Roman Bronfman, cautiously wondered if the prime minister, Ariel Sharon, did not have Jewish blood on his hands.

In carefully couched terms, he raised the question after the militant Islamic movement Hamas responded with its favorite weapon - the suicide bombing of civilians - to Israel's botched attempt to kill its political leader.

"It is necessary to examine government policy which may not have been helpful in progressing the "road map" and seems to have taken us back to death, pain and sorrow," Mr Bronfman said

In the 24 hours between the failed assassination bid on Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi and the killing of 16 people on a bus in central Jerusalem, there was fevered speculation about the timing of Mr Sharon's order to kill Dr Rantissi.

There was uncommon agreement ranging from the Israeli far right to the Palestinian leadership that the assassination bid was bound up with the politics of Mr Sharon's reluctant embrace of the US-led road map to peace. There was also a consensus that Israel would pay in blood.

Jewish settlers facing eviction from barren hilltops across the West Bank suspect that Mr Sharon was trying to placate his hardline partners in the governing coalition, who say he is endangering Israel's security by bulldozing Jewish "outposts" to satisfy the road map's demands. Others seized on the attack to claim that the real Mr Sharon was back - the one who claims he wants peace, but acts like a warrior.

The Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, better known as Abu Mazen, fears that may indeed be the case, and has frantically urged the Americans to whip Mr Sharon back into line.

The assassination attempt also brought stinging criticism from generally less hostile quarters. A group of 25 retired generals, who had planned to publish a newspaper advertisement today in support of Mr Sharon's commitment to the creation of a viable Palestinian state at last week's summit with President George Bush, cancelled the notice after the failed assassination.

Among those who initiated the advert was Brigadier-General Asher Levy, Mr Sharon's commanding officer in the 1948 independence war.

"We fought together and we were wounded together, so I know him well. We had a long conversation a year ago and I believed he had changed. Now I'm not sure," he said.

"The attempted assassination on Rantissi was an act of folly. Sharon sees it as the best way to guarantee Israel's security. I don't agree. At this time, when Abu Mazen is trying to do something on his side, which is not easy, I don't think we should undermine him."

Frustrated foreign diplomats believe Mr Sharon is playing politics with the road map.

"They could take out Rantissi any time they wanted, so why now?" said one. "Whenever Sharon gives ground, as he did to the Americans in Aqaba, he always tacks back the other way."

Mr Abbas has spent weeks trying to persuade Hamas to agree to a ceasefire; Mr Sharon wants him to take on the militants by force. But the Israeli leader knows that the Palestinian prime minister lacks the resources and manpower to get into a fight with Hamas, which many Palestinians fear could degenerate into a civil war. So the Israelis claim they have to do the job.

"If the Palestinian Authority does not perform its duties we will do so in its stead," Mr Sharon told the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.

He evidently expected a formal protest from the White House, but quiet understanding behind the scenes. Instead, he got an enraged phone call from Mr Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice.

"The timing was bad for Sharon because Bush is focused on Israel and the Palestinians right now," said one diplomat. "Bush sees this as sticking up two fingers. Now Sharon will have to do something to convince Bush he is not trying to torpedo the road map. That may require him to get on with dismantling the outposts with more energy."

Skeptics note a pattern of Israeli assassinations at crucial moments in the peace efforts. In January and July 2002, and March this year, the army's assassination of senior Hamas or Tanzim commanders broke weeks without Palestinian attacks and efforts to establish a ceasefire.

Mr Sharon dismissed the criticism. "What did they want, that I not protect the Jews? I've been doing that since the dawn of my youth, for over 55 years," he told Yedioth Ahronoth.

But from the smoldering wreckage of the bus in central Jerusalem yesterday rose new questions about whether Israel's leader is saving Jewish lives or sacrificing them.

© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2003

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