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Yedioth Ahronoth: "Stop Them With Full Force"

OpEd by Tzali Reshef, a key founder and former secretary general of Peace Now

9/28/08
 
by Tzali Reshef (op-ed) -- [The author is the former secretary general of Peace Now]

   The attack on Professor Zeev Sternhell was a warning: just a few kilometers away from where we all live exists a social-political-governmental reality that is the polar opposite of the democracy we delude ourselves into believing that we live in.

   In the West Bank, Judea and Samaria if you so prefer, the real sovereigns are the settlers. Up until a certain stage, it was those settlers who perceived themselves as part of Israeli society, but believed that their messianic religious faith earned them the right to twist society's arm and to force it to engage in settlement activity.

   The classic settlers made us expropriate lands, gain control of them by a variety of means and to settle on them. On the way, they leapt over every legal obstacle, all with a wink to the political establishment and with what was supposed to be irreverent grace, which prompted a majority of Israeli society to turn a blind eye to it.

   But the next generation of settlers no longer is prepared to make do with the ways of its parents.

   The clash with the Palestinians was something ineluctable for the parents' generation of settlers. They were not pleased to go to battle, but they did understand the need to oppress the population in order to facilitate the settlement enterprise.

   The current generation of settlers is more eschatological, nationalist, fascistic and dangerous than its parents' generation was. This generation is eager to go to battle. As opposed to its parents, it long ago became alienated from Israeli society and is prepared to resort to violence against IDF soldiers. It has been beyond the pale with respect to the norms of upholding the law and democratic values for a long time now.

   This generation of settlers is violent, and a significant portion of it commits serious crimes against the Palestinian population and the IDF. Now people from within that group are threatening part of Israeli society that lives inside the Green Line.

   It is impossible to overstate the danger posed by those people and that is why the time has arrived to stop clicking our tongues and to begin taking action. That is one of the most significant challenges facing the next government. The prime minister has to place law enforcement among the settlers and the restraint of the extremists among them at the top of her list of priorities. No less.

   The government needs to present an emergency program in the framework of which joint police-State Attorney's Office units will be established in order to deal thoroughly with the criminals among the settlers. The way to do so is to deploy a determined police force that is not afraid of the settlers and does not do their bidding at all points of friction. Detectives will be sent out to every incident, every attack, no matter how insignificant, on the population, the army or property. And every disturbance of the peace will result in swift prosecution by a special office that is to be established to that end in the State Attorney's Office. The new law enforcement unit for the settlements will cooperate with the GSS's Jewish department in order to prevent settlers from forming terrorist networks.

   A situation in which the settlers can do whatever they please and are never caught cannot be sustained any more. Masked settlers will not assault IDF troops and return home.

   If this sort of action is not taken immediately, if the necessary resources are not allocated, if war is not declared-then a grave danger is posed to democracy, the integrity of the State of Israel and the physical security of not only the Arab residents of the territories and the soldiers who serve there, but of each and every person who fights for the values of democracy, rule of law and peace in Israel.