Spetner

        A Cincinnati high school graduate went to an outdoor mall in Jerusalem for an ice cream cone and became one of the latest victims of violence in the Middle East.

        Palestinian suicide bombers and gun attacks over the weekend killed 26 people and injured dozens more, including Temima Spetner, a 2000 graduate of the Regional Institute for Torah and Secular Studies in Golf Manor.

        Ms. Spetner, 19, was recovering Monday from two surgeries to repair a severed femoral artery and remove shrapnel from her abdomen, said her uncle, Rabbi David Spetner of Amberley Village.

        “Thank God she's going to be OK,” said Rabbi Spetner. “She's resilient. This won't get her down. I think she'll come out even stronger.”

        Ms. Spetner, a native of St. Louis, is in her second year at the Nevah Jerusalem College for Women. She came to Cincinnati for her junior and senior years of high school and lived in a dormitory at the Regional Institute.

        After an aunt washed Ms. Spetner's clothes three times to clean the blood and dirt, she found a bolt sharpened to a point that had been imbedded in a jacket, said Rabbi Spetner.

        The aunt also told him about

        seeing cups full of metal shards, nails and bolts, used in the suicide bombs, that came out of the surgical rooms at the Jerusalem hospital.

        Dena Rosenberg, a senior at the Regional Institute, ate ice cream at the same mall during a summer visit with Ms. Spetner, her best friend.

        “I was at the same places where she was ... only this time, there was a bomb,” said Ms. Rosenberg, 17, of Dallas. “This is what we deal with every day. Every single day, there are these type of things in Israel. It's a very scary thing.”

        When Channy Lerner transferred from a school in New York City to the Cincinnati institute, Ms. Spetner was the first person to welcome her and make her feel at home.

        Ms. Lerner, also 17 and a senior at the school, spent last summer in Israel and witnessed a suicide bombing. She's given up on the peace process.

        “If they want to kill us, then we have to do the same back,” Ms. Lerner said.

        While other local Jews and Arabs condemned the killings, they also expressed frustration over negotiations that have failed to thwart violence in the re gion.

        Zeinab Schwen, an American Palestinian who lives in Symmes Township, called the bombings unfortunate but said they are the direct result of injustice in the Middle East.

        “Israel's heavy-handed occupation of Palestinian land is always going to be a thorn. Until there is some justice, this will continue,” said Ms. Schwen.

        She fears for the safety of her brother and sister-in-law, who live in the Gaza Strip. Ms. Schwen hadn't reached them Monday.

        Michael Rapp, director of the Jewish Community Relations Council, said it's time to stop making excuses for the Palestinian leadership.

        “I think that what Israel has to do now is to say to Arafat what President Bush said to the Afghan government: Either give up terrorism or give up power,” said Mr. Rapp. “It's irrelevant whether he can't control his followers or won't control them. In either case, he's not a candidate with whom the Israelis need to negotiate.”

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