Washington, June 08: Israel's justice minister Tommy Lapid told US Television today that Palestinian terrorists would fail in their efforts at unraveling recent success made toward achieving Middle East peace.
"The extremists, the fanatics are trying to destroy our effort, and they will not succeed, though it is very, very painful and it's not the end of it," he told a private television today.
His comments came several hours after four Israeli soldiers were killed in an attack on a military checkpoint Sunday by Palestinian hardline groups, endangering the roadmap peace plan and Palestinian premier Mahmud Abbas' efforts to secure a ceasefire.
The soldiers were killed today when three militants opened automatic gunfire on an army position at the Erez crossing point between Israel and the Gaza strip before being gunned down themselves.
The attack, claimed by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the al- Aqsa martyrs brigades, came only four days after Abbas vowed to rein in radical groups at his summit in Aqaba, Jordan with US President George W Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

Lapid said that the attack was "horrible, but it was expected."

He called on Yasser Arafat to do more to support the fledgling Middle East peace process and the us-fostered "roadmap" toward peace, and offered emphatic support for Prime Minister Abbas.
Bureau Report