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Leftist prof.: Bomb at my home shows settler violence spilling over Green Line
By Jonathan Lis, Haaretz Correspondent and Haaretz Service
Tags: Israel News, Zeev Sternhell 

Professor Zeev Sternhell on Friday said the pipe bomb attack at his home late Wednesday, believed by police to have been perpetrated by right-wing extremists, was a sign that settler violence was spilling over the Green Line into Israel proper.

The left-wing activist and Haaretz columnist told Israel Radio that "there are two populations in the [Palestinian] territories and there are two systems of law, and if settlers are allowed to beat Palestinians, to uproot their orchards and demolish their houses - why shouldn't this happen across the Green Line?"

The Green Line demarcates Israel's border with the West Bank as it lay before the 1967 Six-Day War.
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Sternhell, an Israel Prize laureate, was lightly injured when a pipe bomb exploded outside his home in Jerusalem, in what police suspect could be a new campaign by right-wing extremists to target prominent left-wingers.

He said that he was sure that the attack had been perpetrated by a member of the extreme right. "It is possible that this was done by a lone crazy person, an organization or an entire settlement."

Sternhell also blamed apathy to settler violence for the bombing. "Society does not respond," he said during the radio interview, adding that when someone does in fact respond it is "positively or with a wink."

Outside Sternhell's home and in nearby streets Wednesday, the police found fliers offering a NIS 1.1 million reward for the killing of members of left-wing human rights movement Peace Now. This led to the suspicion that Jewish terrorists were behind the pipe-bomb attack, meant as a response to Sternhell's harsh criticism of West Bank settlers and their harassment of Palestinians.

"These are the developments that lead to the collapse of a very fragile democracy, as happened in Europe," Sternhell said. He was apparently referring to the rise of Nazism. Sternhell is an internationally renowned expert on the history of fascism. He was awarded the country's highest honor, the Israel Prize, earlier this year for his work in the field.

Dichter: Jewish terrorists tried to murder Zeev Sternhell

On Thursday, Public Security Minister Avi Dichter called the incident "a nationalist terror attack apparently perpetrated by Jews" and said the police would not rest until "those terrorists" were behind bars.

"We should see the explosive as aimed at killing," Dichter said, adding that the attack "takes us back to the days of [Prime Minister Yitzhak] Rabin's assassination."

The police stressed that the bomb was not meant to intimidate but was a murder attempt.

Following the attack on the professor, the police have beefed up security around the home of Peace Now head Yariv Oppenheimer.

Speaking from his hospital bed on Wednesday after the bombing, Sternhell said that "if this was not an act committed by a deranged person but by someone who represents a political view, then it is the beginning of the disintegration of democracy."

He said that "the incident illustrates the fragility of Israeli democracy, and the urgent need to defend it."

"On the personal level, if the intent was to terrorize, it has to be very clear that I am not easily intimidated," he said. "But the perpetrators tried to hurt not only me, but each and every one of my family members who could have opened the door, and for that there is no absolution and no forgiveness."

The Israel Prize award for Sternhell drew fire from West Bank settlers and their supporters, who unsuccessfully petitioned Israel's Supreme Court to block it.

Kadima leader and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni condemned Wednesday's attack, saying that the incident was "intolerable, and cannot be glossed over."

At a ceremony marking the Rosh Hashanah holiday at the Foreign Ministry, Livni said that "Israel is a lawful state and is populated by a society with values. It is the responsibility of the government and Israeli society to renounce such phenomena as soon as they rear their heads."

Senior political figures also expressed outrage at the news of the attack on Sternhell, which has touched a nerve given the country's history of political violence, they said.

"We are returning to the dark era of pipe bombs aimed at people, in this case against a very gifted person who never hesitates to express his opinion," Defense Minister Ehud Barak said.

According to the chairman of the Knesset's internal affairs committee, Labor MK Ophir Pines-Paz: "The attack on Prof. Sternhell is a cowardly, terrorist act by those with no sense of justice." He urged the police and Shin Bet security service to strive to capture the perpetrators quickly and ensure that they receive hefty prison sentences.

"They'd better not talk to us about a few wild weeds," Meretz chairman Haim Oron said. "These people appear on the right wing."

"This thuggish and dangerous act is the result of the continuing see-no-evil approach toward the vicious violence against soldiers and police officers and anyone else who doesn't agree with the brutish section of the extreme right wing," Oron added.

Itamar Ben-Gvir, an activist with a fringe settler group calling itself the National Jewish Front, said Sternhell was an irrelevant figure and that he did not believe settlers were behind the attack. "I don't denounce this incident, but say categorically that we are not involved," Ben-Gvir said.

Sternhell had recently received threatening phone calls, but the bomb attack on him took the Shin Bet and police by surprise. They had no intelligence of a terror group targeting left-wing activists.

A special police team started taking statements from neighbors of the Sternhell family. The police believe the perpetrators stayed in a house nearby in the past few weeks, studying Sternhell's movements, and that passersby and neighbors must have seen them.

"There are hundreds of peace activists in Jerusalem. We have no sign of any intention to harm anyone specific and cannot protect so many people without more specific information," a police source said.

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      1.   the irgun gang strikes again? 04:28  |  VIPER 26/09/08
      2.   settlers and attempts at murder and mayhem 06:06  |  Philip A. Robinson 26/09/08
      3.   Get these terrorists behind bars 06:59  |  Dafna 26/09/08
      4.   Innuendo and Delegitimatization 07:02  |  Rafi 26/09/08
      5.   You fight fire with fire 07:09  |  L A 26/09/08
      6.   Sternhell 08:27  |  Pierre Palestinian 26/09/08
      7.   Nothing new under the sun 08:31  |  zeev 26/09/08
      8.   to Gili #3 - and something else 09:06  |  zeev 26/09/08
      9.   to Gili #3 - and something else 09:22  |  zeev 26/09/08
      10.   Not only "Jewish terrorists" are approving the murder attempt. 09:31  |  S 26/09/08
      11.   End of Democracy - aview from he left 09:34  |  Greg 26/09/08
      12.   to Gili #3 - an answer (2nd try) 09:38  |  zeev 26/09/08
      13.   a state that has failed to indict olmerde is a bad state 10:17  |  v.hardman 26/09/08
      14.   to Greg #12 11:05  |  zeev 26/09/08
      15.   livni is of course joking ! the state ignores law 11:10  |  v.hardman 26/09/08
      16.   Terror campaign in the future ? 11:14  |  Jean-Paul DOGUET 26/09/08
      17.   RESPONSE TO GREG IN THE USA 11:18  |  Avi 26/09/08
      18.   Mr Dichter, What about Ariel 11:23  |  Tal Sharvit 26/09/08
      19.   #11. End of Logic - a view from Greg 12:07  |  zmogus 26/09/08
      20.   Democracy gone badly wrong in Israel 12:14  |  Alicia 26/09/08
      21.   Israel & the Globle financial market. 13:09  |  Akram Zekaria 26/09/08
      22.   to Alicia #20 - I wonder 14:14  |  zeev 26/09/08
      23.   zeev there is no argument on the horrible bombing 15:11  |  judah 26/09/08
      24.   To Avi and Greg:you are both right 15:15  |  Hastaroth 26/09/08
      25.   You fight fire with fire 15:15  |  mark 26/09/08
      26.   #7 A question 15:19  |  Hastaroth 26/09/08
      27.   Nothing new under the sun 15:24  |  mark 26/09/08
      28.   Greg`s selective bird`s eye view from Washington 16:01  |  Tzfonit 26/09/08
      29.   NY Times Article 18:16  |  Dave Duncan 26/09/08
      30.   Haaretz going out of its way 18:28  |  Arie 26/09/08
      31.   This is happening because Israel needs real new elections 18:31  |  Dish It Out 26/09/08
      32.   Alicia #20 You are absolutely right about Democracy & lack of it. 18:38  |  S 26/09/08
      33.   #32 S: thank you and Shanah Tovah 5769 20:37  |  Alicia 26/09/08
      34.   Arabs Occupation & Dhimmitude Threatens Israel . 21:33  |  Joseph.E 26/09/08
      35.   Law and Order in israel= Comic Books 21:42  |  Danite 26/09/08
      36.   to judah #23 - part 1 21:56  |  zeev 26/09/08
      37.   to judah #23 - part 2 21:57  |  zeev 26/09/08
      38.   to S #32 - 2nd try 22:01  |  zeev 26/09/08
      39.   to Hastaroth #26 - 2nd try 22:03  |  zeev 26/09/08
      40.   Where are the real "Patriots"? 22:07  |  Gray 26/09/08
      41.   to Alicia #33 22:18  |  zeev 26/09/08
      42.   Why is it that....? 22:20  |  Gray 26/09/08
      43.   stop all incitements, all excuses for violence 22:22  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 26/09/08
      44.   No such thing as "dhimmitude" Joseph E. 23:16  |  BBSNews 26/09/08
      45.   Who wants to be a leftist..? 23:25  |  Stephen. 26/09/08
      46.   Sorry, sorry, sorry. My Ziobots ran out of control again. 23:47  |  Andreas 26/09/08
      47.   Alicia 23:59  |  Stella Westwell 26/09/08
      48.   Attack on Sternhall 00:39  |  Berel 27/09/08
      49.   what do you expect 00:43  |  mark 27/09/08
      50.   Oh Thank You Tzipi for the Shabbat Belly Laugh 00:53  |  Lee Kaplan 27/09/08
      51.   # 41 Zeev 00:55  |  Alicia 27/09/08
      52.   zeev 01:07  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 27/09/08
      53.   zeev you are foolish if you think changing deal to accord 02:11  |  judah 27/09/08
      54.   zeev egypt jordan and syria are governments 02:15  |  judah 27/09/08
      55.   zeev "contracts and parties" 02:16  |  judah 27/09/08
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      57.   #52, correction 02:20  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 27/09/08
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      60.   to CJ Kohn #52 02:51  |  zeev 27/09/08
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