Tulkarem, West Bank ? For the U.S.-led Mideast peace plan to work, the new Palestinian leaders must find a way to put an end to suicide bombings.

A recent Knight Ridder interview with two leading members of the militant group closest to the Palestinian leadership underscores the obstacles these leaders face in stamping out the cyclical violence that has made peace seem like a cruel illusion.

“Violence must be answered with violence,” said Jareera, 28, a regional leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade who was interviewed in the bedroom of a suicide bomber. “You call it suicide; it is our only weapon. It is the only weapon the Israelis fear.”

Keeping militants like Jareera from derailing the road map peace plan, as it’s called, has become a primary focus of new Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas. His new security chief, Mohammed Dahlan, conducted secret negotiations this week with militant groups and reportedly reached a cease-fire with Hamas, the organization responsible for most of the suicide bombings in the past 31 months. Similar talks are ongoing with Islamic Jihad and Al Aqsa, the militant wing of Abbas’ and Yasser Arafat’s Fatah group.

Al Aqsa has claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in Kfar Saba two weeks ago that killed a security guard. Al Aqsa also reportedly helped plan the suicide bombing at a Tel Aviv jazz club last week that killed three.

The attacks were warning shots, Jareera said, aimed at the peace process and the new Palestinian government, which has threatened to disarm militants.

If Abbas does crack down on groups such as Al Aqsa, he will have a difficult time. They are sophisticated, determined and widely supported by the Palestinian people.

It took a week for Knight Ridder to gain clearance from Al Aqsa’s intelligence apparatus for an interview with Jareera and Hazem, the group’s leaders in Tulkarem, which, with the West Bank city of Nablus, is an Al Aqsa stronghold.

The two leaders, who would give only their first names, said they are disgusted with the road map presented by the United States, Russia, the United Nations and the European Union. Hazem called it a “security map” for Israel that provided little for Palestinians.

“Palestinians are always the ones who are asked to give up their weapons; it is the Israeli army that should stop shooting,” Jareera said. “We are resistance fighters with a just cause; the terrorists are in the Israeli military.”

The two said Abbas and Dahlan should reach out to militant groups, rather than attack them, and had an ominous warning for the new security chief.

“If they try to dismantle us,” Jareera said, “they will pay the ultimate price — we are talking of civil war.”