Window on Israel: A "Jewish Intifada"?

After 60 years as an independent state, Israel is far from a united society.

We should expect nothing else. The Arabs are 20 percent of the population, and the Jews have come from diverse cultures. Some Diaspora communities existed for more than two thousand years. Migrants and their children have included the overtly secular and intensely religious. Among the religious are those who view the State of Israel as a creation with theological significance, and others who see it as an affront to the Almighty.

Currently the Jews of Israel are wrestling with their diversities. One story comes out of the tragedy at the Chabad Center in Mumbai. Another is still evolving around a contested building in Hebron.

A man killed in Mumbai was a member of the Satmar community of the ultra-Orthodox, among the most outspoken of the anti-Zionists. Family members protested about the transport of his body, along with the others, on an Israeli air force plane, and again when officials covered his coffin with an Israeli flag at an official ceremony upon arrival at Ben Gurion airport. A friend of the deceased agreed to be interviewed on Israel radio. He insisted that the family did not ask for the body's transportation on an Israeli plane, and referred to the offensive flag as "that thing." On the insistence of the family, no state official attended his burial on the Mount of Olives.

Much more explosive, on account of the numbers of the disaffected as well as their activism (as opposed to the usual passivity of Satmar) are the children of religious settlers who curse, kick, spit, throw stones, and threaten to do worse against police and soldiers who would enforce the state's laws on the West Bank. Some of these children uproot Arab olive trees, attack Arab women and old men who tend flocks or harvest olives. They have vandalized mosques and Muslim cemeteries.

Hundreds occupied a building in Hebron against a ruling of the Supreme Court.

It is not the first time, and is not likely to be the last time, that intensely religious and nationalist Jews oppose the government on the issue of settling wherever they want.

The troops of this extra-legal army are 13 to 17 year old boys and girls, led by rabbis and other activists, and supported by untold thousands of Jews who are sympathetic to their cause, or may be made sympathetic by "overreactions" by authorities. Supporters insist on the legal and moral justice of the young people. They are sweet children, the salt of the earth, idealistic Jews doing the work of the Lord despite the personal price they might pay. One should not expect any less of Jews given our suffering at the hands of the Arabs.

Those who worry about the status of women in Judaism might notice that one of the most vocal of the settlers is a grandmother who pays no heed to authorities who dare violate her reading of the Bible. We have seen pictures of young people jumping with excitement when she urges them onward to ever more daring missions. She has been criticized by other leaders of the settlers as too extreme.

If it were the Arabs of Hebron acting like these Jews, we would be counting their bodies. Against the violent Jews of Hebron, officials are reluctant to use any force, and certainly not deadly force. Typically the most aggressive offenders are seized one at a time by several soldiers or police, dragged kicking and screaming to a bus, transported to a holding pen, and released after a few hours unless their offense has been especially severe.

After previous encounters, settlers have pressed authorities to forgive their rambunctious youngsters so they can join elite units of the army. Religious Zionists are superpatriots. Supporters are not altogether wrong when they describe them as one of Israel's most valuable resources. The state they adore to is not the same as that of moderates who strive to make peace with the Palestinians. Nonetheless, they make aggressive officers and soldiers when they are not demonstrating forcefully against the soldiers.

The current issue involves a building that Jews claimed they purchased, but which authorities did not approve as a place of residence for Jews. Such decisions are meant to prevent uncontrolled settlement in areas likely to provoke unrest from the Arabs. The Supreme Court ordered the building to be cleared on account of its illegal occupation. A lower court is still considering the legality of the purchase. Opponents charge that documents involved in the sale were forged.

There is a long history of irregularities in the sale of Arab properties to Jews. Family members risk being lynched if they sell openly to Jews, so a sale will pass through several hands. Original owners take their money and move to some distant country, hopefully beyond the wrath of their former neighbors. There have been forgeries, either by someone in the chain of Arab owners or mediators, or by Jews wanting to advance the deal.

The Defense Minister (who has ultimate responsibility for Israeli activities in the West Bank), and other politicians dithered. All expressed platitudes in favor of law, but none wanted to shed Jewish blood.

The problems of officials, and the politicians in charge, include the numbers of people, and the intensity that can be ignited by a forceful removal. There is a national election in February. At stake are the votes of religious Jews that might be floating, as well as votes of secular Israelis who can be sympathetic to Jews who cast themselves as a vanguard against the Arabs.

After several days of negotiations, the police moved in and removed the settlers from the building.

Political loyalties affect one's terminology and views. Politicians on the right supported continued negotiations, or waiting on further decisions from the courts. They called the structure the "House of Peace," and described the removal as premature, brutal, and motivated by left-wing politics.

Supporters of the settlers are sure that the sale was legal, and claim that a favorable ruling from the lower court is certain. They discount the decision of the Supreme Court. Some said that the high court should have waited for the lower court to decide on the legality of the sale. Others said, as they did in the past, that religious law has precedence over the laws of the state, and that Jews can settle where they want in the Land of Israel.

Those in favor of the removal called the building the "Contested House." They demanded that Israel enforce its laws and judicial decisions. Tzipi Livni said that the Jews of the West Bank cannot act like bandits of the Wild West. After the settlers' removal, those in favor of the action praised the police for their restraint, and a relatively quick and effective operation. Some 20 settlers and police were injured seriously enough to be taken to hospital.

This removal resembled previous actions. It involved a period of substantial advance warning, several efforts at negotiation, and limited  force.  The men and women doing the work operated with helmets, face shields, body armor, tear gas, and truncheons. Settlers adhered to the unwritten rule of not using firearms against the police or army.

A complication focuses on the young peoples' capacity to provoke a violent response from the Arabs of Hebron and elsewhere. A pogrom in 1929 ended 800 years of Jewish residence in Hebron. Since 1967 the city and a nearby town have--even more than other West Bank settlements--attracted a restive population of Jewish extremists. An Israeli-American physician killed 29 Arabs at prayer and wounded some 150 others in 1994. The killer was beaten to death by Arabs who survived his attack. Jews who view his action as sacred make an annual pilgrimage to his grave.

It is too early to record all the spillovers from the present confrontation. There has been settler vandalism against Arab properties, and violence against Arabs of Hebron and nearby communities. Opponents of the settlers are describing a "Jewish intifada" meant to provoke Arab violence, and then a massive Israeli response.

Hamas is beating its own drums, charging that the Fatah government of Mahmoud Abbas has stood silent while Israelis plunder Arab property and attack Arab civilians.

Should Arabs react violently against what they view as Jewish provocation, one can expect a body count, and a hue and cry internationally. Then there will be further reason for the Jews of Israel to express their rage against one another.