Today Israel retaliated against Hamas for the suicide bombing of a crowded bus that claimed at least eighteen lives; Hamas political leader Abu Shanab was killed by a missile strike on his vehicle.

The media coverage of this event has not been as scathingly critical of Israel as it has been in the past, and for good reason. Maybe more are starting to understand what this cease-fire was really about.

Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and other groups offered a three-month cease-fire when the pressure was high to make first steps along the American road map; the peace plan calls for a series of parallel improvements on both sides of the conflict. At the time Israel cautioned that a cease-fire would simply allow militants to regroup and rearm, but accepted in the end under pressure from the international community.

Since then, what’s happened? Israel was hit with two separate suicide bombings on August 12, and on August 20 Hamas claimed responsibility for the grotesque bombing of a bus carrying people from a religious excursion.

One cannot fault Israel for striking back against the militants who broke their own cease-fire. Hamas and Islamic Jihad both declared an end to the cease-fire after the Israeli strike — no mention of their attack moments earlier.

The road map put forward by Bush is faltering. Israel cannot fully withdraw from occupied territories while the threat of terrorist attacks is high. Temporary cease-fires, as this summer has shown, only give militants time to recover from Israeli offensives — they do not promote peace. Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian PM, needs to crack down on militants within his own borders, not continue negotiating with them. But in order to do that he needs more support at home, which means Israel must be pressured by the US to give up what it can without sacrificing its security.

What everyone should understand, however, is that Palestinian militants are not rival politicians. They are terrorists. Israel cannot negotiate with them any more than George Bush could negotiate with Osama bin Laden. The only real option for peace is for the United States to apply its pressure where it is needed: in creating an environment where Abbas has the public support he needs to go after the militants who have hijacked his country and ruined the lives of its citizens and its neighbors.