Fanatic Fringe

Zealous nationalism stirs strife

Who are the Jewish extremists on the occupied West Bank who may have brought the territory to a flash point? Most of them migrated there to live in the 64 Jewish settlements that have been established in the West Bank since it was captured by Israel in 1967. Many were moved by an idealistic conviction that they were settling in Eretz Israel, the biblical land of the prophets. Others had more contemporary, political motives. In any case, their zealous nationalism has spawned increasingly violent bouts of intercommunal strife between Arabs and Jews. As the reciprocal hostility has mounted, youthful Jewish settlers often roam among the Arab districts, smashing windows and slashing tires, even invading Arab homes and beating up their occupants. The nationalists have also acquired disproportionate political power and independence within Israel, to the point that some observers fear an outright insurrection might be possible if, for instance, an Israeli government were to try to remove the settlements.

The differing shades of right-wing militancy have given rise to two main groups. Both originated with the Greater Israel Movement, formed in 1967 with the aim of annexing the West Bank. The most militant organization is Rabbi Meir Kahane's Kach (meaning "thus" in Hebrew), which the Brooklyn-born rabble-rouser established in Israel in 1974. Though only 30% of Kach's 400 members are Orthodox Jews, Kahane and his cohorts insist that the state of Israel should be governed according to biblical precepts. Kahane openly advocates violence to drive the Arabs out of the West Bank. One of his aims in creating the group, he has said, was to build a counterterrorist organization in opposition to Arab terrorist groups.

Somewhat less extreme is the larger Gush Emunim (Group of the Faithful), founded after the 1973 war by Rabbi Moshe Levinger, 44. Gush urges a policy of aggressive Jewish settlements in all the occupied Arab lands. In several instances it has used the tactic of illegal squatting until de facto settlement is finally recognized by the Israeli government.

Both Gush and Kach denied responsibility for last week's attempted assassinations but they did not decry them. Said Kach Spokesman Yossi Dayan: "We warned these mayors that they had to leave Eretz Israel. If they had listened to us, they would be able to walk today."

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