Radical Settlers Fight Palestine —and Israel

Bomb attack against professor shows new right-wing militancy

By Jason Farago, Newser Staff

Posted Sep 26, 2008 10:17 AM CDT

(Newser) – A pipe bomb exploded Wednesday night outside the Jerusalem home of a dovish Israeli professor—where authorities also found fliers promising a $300,000 reward to anyone who killed members of a leftist advocacy group. The attack is the latest sign that right-wing settlers are resorting to extremist tactics to show the Israeli government that they will not be removed from their settlements in the West Bank, the New York Times reports.

A localized war already is raging between Jews and Palestinians in the West Bank, but a faction of settlers has begun directing violence toward an Israeli government by which they feel betrayed. One settler was unapologetic about the movement's increased militancy, saying that Israeli Jews “have to decide whether they are on the side of the Torah or the state.”

[Images (4)]

[Quotes (1)]

A woman hangs her laundry at a Jewish settlement near the Palestinian West Bank. Israel has put off talks of paying Jewish settlers to leave the West Bank, but plans to take up the matter next week. (AP Photo/Dan Balilty)

A woman walks in a Jewish settlement near the Palestinian West Bank. Israel has put off talks of paying Jewish settlers to leave the West Bank, but plans to take up the matter next week. (AP Photo/Dan Balilty)

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert pauses at a Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, Monday, Sept. 15, 2008. (AP Photo)

Israeli border police scuffle with Jewish right-wing activists during an evacuation at a hilltop near the Elon Moreh settlement in the northern West Bank, Monday, Oct. 1, 2007. (AP Photo)

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The army was complaining that we were bothering them in their efforts to catch the terrorist. To us, deterrence is more important than catching the specific terrorist. We’re fighting against a nation. - Ephraim Ben Shochat, 21, a settler

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Radical Settlers Fight Palestine —and Israel