Israeli politics have already proven the degree to which they are controlled by Murphy's Law: Anything that can go wrong, will. That is how we must relate to the story of the settlement Homesh. It was evacuated according to law, and its residents received alternative housing and compensation. In a farce that has been familiar since the early days of the Hebron settlers on Pesach eve 39 years ago, a discussion is now resuming in Homesh between violators of the law and those who enforce it. It is liable to end badly, in the same way a handful of extremists in the territories has become over a quarter million settlers on the West Bank.

The connection between their increasing strength and the weakness of the government is greater now than then. In Hebron 1968, for the first time a strong government that had not yet seen the political upheaval which transferred power from Labor to Likud, gave in to the settlers. Not even it its nightmares. It spoke doublespeak. Shimon Peres excelled at that already then. Today there is ostensibly no question. There is an Evacuation Law. With a heavy heart, but with a broad consensus, the nation saw the settlers being dragged out of Gaza. Homesh and Sa-Nur are part of the decision to first evacuate problematic settlements in areas densely populated by Palestinians. But the foggy mumbling between the rule of law and the violators of the law continued this week as though Rabbi Moshe Levinger and Yigal Allon were still walking around there.

It is happening as the government disintegrates. One reason it's happening is that Levinger's successors are well aware of the government's weakness. The army and the police refused at first, by law, to allow the evacuees to go up to Homesh. They refused and they gave in. Afterwards, with the same old trepidation, they did not allow the settlers to spend the night on the site, and immediately gave in. The operation of the settlement extremists was perfectly organized. In addition to determination they had equipment, transportation, an event to break the heart of the sleepy Israeli majority (a brit on the ruin of the settlement), and as usual, the ostensibly sensitive hesitation of the rule of law.

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And indeed, how can a government whose ministers spend their time in interrogation rooms stand fast behind the law?

The same is true in Hebron. The settlers have a kushan (property title deed) for an Arab house. But the government has laws that specifically forbid the realization of ownership under circumstances such as those of the violent relations between Jewish and Palestinian neighbors in Kiryat Arba. Shaky Ehud Olmert is not crazy about the idea of throwing what is left of his weight to end the affairs in Hebron and Homesh as should have been done. Senior officials of the Israel Defense Forces are rummaging through the settlers' documents. They are consulting with the heads of a police force embarrassed by its own problems on whether to evict. Maybe today, maybe we'll postpone. And maybe Ze'ev Hever, "Zambish," or another senior settler leader has obtained some extension from Olmert during a nighttime conversation?

Not only money in envelopes for the finance minister is corruption. There is also corruption in a government that does not enforce the law because of extraneous considerations. For similar reasons, Olmert created a scene for the U.S. secretary of state two days ago. On these issues he knows how to be firm: concerning what is liable to be seen, during the time of his collapse, as a surrender to a dictate on discussing the future of the territories.

The danger of his weakness vis-a-vis the settlers is no smaller than the danger of pervading corruption in the corridors of government. Because we are now seeing only a tiny bit of a subversive move against the government. When the day comes of a serious evacuation on the West Bank, the Zambishes will not make do with cat-and-mouse games with the army. They will do everything possible to prevent an exit from there, by any means necessary. A Jewish underground already arose once from among their ranks. Why shouldn't they try a putsch? Isn't it possible? There are many things that have happened here during the past year that one wouldn't have imagined.