Our friend Professor Shapir, back in his native Israel, asks whether the tectonic plates beneath the West Bank are starting to move and sends this report from Kibbutz Nahshonim:
As all of you know it is never boring in Israel. Yet some days are
more crucial than others. The time before the last time I was here the
Turkish flotilla debacle happened. This time the vicious attacks of
extreme-right religious fanatics are making the headlines.
The Likudniks and the settlement establishment supporters are
"shocked" from what has happened here in the last couple of days. The
most extreme have started to attack not only Palestinians, but
Zahal (Israeli Defense Forces) officers and bases as well. To the center and moderate-right
leaning people this is a very hard awakening. Suddenly, they realize
what rotten elements grew up in the lawlessness of the West Bank they
themselves helped to create. The story line of Gershom Gorenberg (he
will have a piece on these events in the American Prospect today or
tomorrow) is exposed in a sudden bang to all those who tried to
pretend that skirting the rule of the law is a small price to pay
in the pursuit of Greater Israel. For the first time the settlement project is undermined by its rogue elements more than it is by its
oponents. Politically the effects will take time to materialize,
but future historians may well mark the last two days as the beginning
of the decline in the support for the settlments within Israeli public
opinion.
For more on the extremist element in Israel read Amos Harel
here in Haaretz.
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