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Last update - 15:06 29/07/2008
Provocateurs vs. defeatists
By Haaretz Editorial
Tags: outposts, West Bank settlers 

The outgoing commander of the northern West Bank, Colonel Amir Baram, says he is "not surprised" by the settlers' recent rioting. Nor were his predecessors. There is really nothing new under the West Bank sun - things repeat themselves.

Officials in the Israel Defense Forces, police and prosecution know mainly how to summarize events, warn of similar ones in the future, write reports and hold meetings summing up their failure to deal with the West Bank lawbreakers.

Colonel Baram named Kedumim council head Daniela Weiss and the rabbi at the Ma'aleh Levona religious girls' high school, Gadi Ben Zimra, as the "main provocateurs."
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The girls who refused to talk in police detention because they did not recognize the state's authority did indeed come from the Levona high school. The Kedumim council gives the outlaws shelter because Weiss believes they are persecuted.

The generations come and go - settlers, lawbreakers, yeshiva students, soldiers who guard them and get treated contemptuously, teachers drawing salaries from taxpayers, settlers' sons and grandchildren who do whatever they like. And some of them constitute an infrastructure for Jewish terrorism in the territories. Palestinian generations, meanwhile, also come and go as the settlers, their children and grandchildren rampage and plunder unhindered in a state that has seemingly given up.

A short while ago it turned out that senior settler Zeev (Zambish) Hever, a veteran member of the Jewish terror cells of the 1980s, is being persecuted by the right wing, which is more extreme than he is. The man who invented the diversionary tactics that enabled the construction of the supposedly legal state-funded settlements is now regarded as too moderate and is being harassed for his willingness to give up two outposts in order to hang on to a hundred others.

The excuse for Thursday's rampage was an attempt to evacuate a mobile home, a sort of fake outpost that had only been erected so its removal could be portrayed as a semblance of an evacuation.

Evacuating a mobile home gives the right-wing activists a chance to exercise their forces. The extremist yeshiva students gather by means of a communications network, they block roads, beat up passing Palestinians, snatch soldiers' weapons, burn orchards and plantations and throw stones - faced by defeatist, helpless defense forces.

This absurd spectacle is everyday routine in the West Bank - one in which illegal yeshivas, operating in illegal settlements, whose teachers' wages are paid by the state, halt studies to enable their students to engage in illegal activity. No Israeli government has even tried to deal with the settlers' violence.

Radical yeshiva students - the yeshiva formerly at Joseph's Tomb that moved to Yitzhar and the one on Havat Gilad in Ma'aleh Levona - are marching class after class on the high road of illegal activity.

The attempt to remove a mobile home in the Adei Ad outpost led to Thursday's confrontation, but this is but one incident in a succession of confrontations. The outgoing commander is joining dozens who have said that the settlers' leadership, not the youth, must be dealt with. This statement will probably remain hanging in the air.
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  1.   Because there are root causes 15:28  |  judith 29/07/08
  2.   Squatters 15:33  |  John Allen 29/07/08
  3.   Judith, you`re wrong 15:43  |  Lisa in Chicago 29/07/08
  4.   LISA, learn the hard facts before you speak. 16:02  |  judith 29/07/08
  5.   Judith #1 Yes to root causes! 16:16  |  Roo 29/07/08
  6.   #4 judith some other hard facts for you to learn 16:18  |  Labhras 29/07/08
  7.   On their way out and grasping for straws 16:27  |  Guy From NYC 29/07/08
  8.   Settlers 16:39  |  Natallie Durson 29/07/08
  9.   IDF = Israel Defeatist Forces 16:44  |  Danny 29/07/08
  10.   Israelis support their Terrorist Squatters. It`s how they steal 17:11  |  POP 29/07/08
  11.   The police say that the leftists are causing these problems 17:14  |  Dani 29/07/08
  12.   They are simply Jewish Terrorists posing as settlers 17:14  |  Yossi Cronenberg 29/07/08
  13.   SETTLERS AND HAMAS ARE EXTREMIST 17:14  |  BENGURION 29/07/08
  14.   IDF 17:34  |  Peter 29/07/08
  15.   The way we live... 17:35  |  Esther 29/07/08
  16.   If these people are marginalize they will turn to terror 18:00  |  Always Happens 29/07/08
  17.   Lahbras, yes, I will 18:12  |  Judith 29/07/08
  18.   Learn - Settlers are NOT root of conflict! = Convienent Scapegoat 18:22  |  Dan 29/07/08
  19.   mine vs. yours 18:24  |  Refer N. Dem 29/07/08
  20.   simple 18:37  |  potobac 29/07/08
  21.   Provocateurs vs. defeatists 19:04  |  martin list, m.d. 29/07/08
  22.   #17 judith sfely tucked away in NY dreams the impossible dream 19:08  |  Labhras 29/07/08
  23.   yes... why not..? 19:14  |  ravi 29/07/08
  24.   "an infrastructure for Jewish terrorism in the territories" 19:36  |  BBSNews 29/07/08
  25.   judith #1: where have I heard that expression before? 19:37  |  ivo 29/07/08
  26.   #1, Judith... 19:50  |  Silvienne 29/07/08
  27.   Solution: The Saudi Plan NOW! 19:55  |  Ivar 29/07/08
  28.   #7 GuyfromNYC. Wanna bet our settlers are "on their way out"? 19:59  |  Chaim 29/07/08
  29.   I find it funny and ironic that the people who claim... 20:15  |  Czarkazem13 29/07/08
  30.   #23 ravi...do you think 20:32  |  Lynn 29/07/08
  31.   Czarkasem13: Welcome To Selective Outrage Headquarters 20:33  |  Gray 29/07/08
  32.   Lords of the Land 20:40  |  David 29/07/08
  33.   Re BBC #24 20:55  |  Esther 29/07/08
  34.   Peter #14: it`s you who are spinning - 20:58  |  ivo 29/07/08
  35.   Only a Palestinian State with final borders will resolve this. 21:20  |  Pablo B 29/07/08
  36.   Ivo no 34 response 22:19  |  Peter 29/07/08
  37.   Lynn shows her true colors. 22:57  |  Ibrahim 29/07/08
  38.   Police Allow Muslims to Attack Jews-ARREST VICTIMS 23:02  |  Linda Rivera 29/07/08
  39.   Jew-HATERS DECEIVE for Expansionist Islam. Already ARAB Pal State 23:12  |  Linda Rivera 29/07/08
  40.   Arab Leaders ORDERED Arabs to LEAVE Palestine/Israel (One 23:17  |  Linda Rivera 29/07/08
  41.   Arab Leaders ORDERED Arabs to LEAVE Palestine/Israel (One 23:17  |  Linda Rivera 29/07/08
  42.   KKK`s Kosher Cousins 23:20  |  Gray 29/07/08
  43.   Arab Leaders ORDERED Arabs to LEAVE Palestine/Israel (Two) 23:20  |  Linda Rivera 29/07/08
  44.   Peter #36: I believe you, but let`s just try to be fair - 23:22  |  ivo 29/07/08
  45.   H.H.=Haaretz Hypocrisy 23:29  |  H.H.=Hate Haaretz 29/07/08
  46.   Judith #4 23:31  |  Fish 29/07/08
  47.   Gray #31: that`s a great name for this Talkback - 23:33  |  ivo 29/07/08
  48.   This is the other ugly and evil face of Israel today 00:14  |  Dutch 30/07/08
  49.   The settlers are VICTIMS! 00:14  |  Rabid Rabbi 30/07/08
  50.   Well, Esther .... 00:31  |  Dutch 30/07/08
  51.   Chaim...I`ll take that bet... 00:32  |  kiwi girl 30/07/08
  52.   Creating new enemies - that s the goal 00:37  |  ruiz 30/07/08
  53.   poisonous fruit blossoming in Zion 00:38  |  newageblues 30/07/08
  54.   Haaretz 00:52  |  michael pielet 30/07/08
  55.   ivo; Sounds like a good idea 01:42  |  Gray 30/07/08
  56.   funny, they missd this part 01:46  |  complete 30/07/08
  57.   Taking on the setlers...Israel`s PAWNS.. 01:58  |  ali 30/07/08
  58.   I submitted at least 5 separate comments. None published 01:58  |  Linda Rivera 30/07/08
  59.   The settlers represent the other unlawful face of Israel 02:17  |  Dutch 30/07/08
  60.   The settlers...USED..Image Probelm........ 03:25  |  ali 30/07/08
  61.   Hello "complete", About your "wonderful pioneering" thing 03:42  |  Gray 30/07/08
  62.   Police Allow VIOLENT Muslims to Attack Jews-ARREST VICTIMS 04:18  |  Linda Rivera 30/07/08
  63.   Who Does World Prefer? Terrorist KILLERS or Jew Homebuilders (1) 04:22  |  Linda Rivera 30/07/08
  64.   Who Does World Prefer? Terrorist KILLERS or Jew Homebuilders (2) 04:24  |  Linda Rivera 30/07/08