European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 25, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                The West Bank a mood of despair extremists popu Arity rising in Israel the Israel palestinian conflict appears to be entering a new one which for Many israelis seems More frightening and difficult to Cope with than much that has gone a new mood of despair among West Bank arabs seems to be their Hopes have been dashed by the destruction of the Palestine liberation organization As a military Force in the failure of the to develop an effective political initiative and by israels refusal to negotiate with credible palestinian leaders Over the future of the West the new mood is particularly acute among the who have grown up during the last 18 years knowing no other administration than israeli military instead of looking for Arab armies or the to Lead them in a fight against the israeli West Bankers Are and taking the military initiative More than at any time since the pre1948 the conflict Between jews and arabs is not Between armies and tanks but Between individual arabs and the arabs and jews have started to behave like said Bethlehem Elias when the member of one tribe is the other takes with All the settlements what kind of future does a Young palestinian living on the West Bank have to look Forward to by the year 2000 All of my generation that knew another life will be in the new generation competes in sports but Here the new both arabs and Are competing More and More in hatred and in recent West Bank palestinian youths have murdered two israeli they have tossed gasoline bombs at passing israeli army jeeps in the full View of witnesses and in three they have walked up to israeli soldiers or shoppers in West Bank Arab towns and shot them at Pointblank Range in Broad the palestinian youths seem to have been encouraged by the Success of shiite guerrilla attacks against the Israel supported South Lebanon army in the israeli Security zone along the shiites killed two israeli soldiers in South Lebanon Early in the first israelis killed there since april and a signal that the Israel shiite Battle is far from in a variation on car bomb suicide explosives loaded on a mule were detonated near a South lebanese army killing the lebanese rider and the in response to the attacks in South israeli jets again bombed a guerrilla base in Syria controlled Eastern we have entered a new phase of locally generated says Meron a leading israeli expert on West Bank it began with the Rock it is not organized by or by the it is just the knee Jerk reaction of people who in Many cases dont even seem worried if they will get it is a real sign of it is kill a jew wherever he and the jews Are reciprocating because so much of this violence is locally generated by israeli Security forces have found it difficult to Deal and some officials have sought to hold Jordan responsible because of offices israels intelligence apparatus is designed to Cope with organized not with three youths with a gun who apparently on the Spur of the to kill a jewish hoping to snuff out these the Israel government Cabinet has decided to revive several Security measures that have not been used for five four students from Nablus Ai Najah University were placed under administrative which May last six months without for palestinian nationalist activism the University was closed for having pro palestinian literature on Halil Abu a West Bank was ordered expelled for unspecified subversive and terrorist the state department criticized the israeli measures As Likely to Foster further there is a feeling among some israeli that the Cabinet dealt Only with the not the causes of the israeli government officials talk of terrorism in the West Bank As though it were some kind of mindless phenomenon without logic or but reports in israeli newspapers suggest that the upsurge in Arab violence is not taking place in a Dediot a leading rights Center said a Tel Aviv District court was looking into charges that top political figures were involved in what it said was the fraudulent takeover of hundreds of acres of private Ara owned lands in the West the paper said investigators contended that hundreds of people were dispossessed of their which have since been used for building and a left Wing reported that a group of West Bank jewish settlers took a Large dog to the Tomb of the patriarchs in where they picked it on an Arab passing and beat up an 11yearold boy who was Selling chewing gum outside the moslem a jewish settler was stabbed in israeli leaders do not explain the causes of this said they cannot explain it because to do so would be to admit that there is another political Community Here that is being driven to if they accept they have to accept that there Are political reasons for that despair and that the solution might be political As this leaves the Field open for extremists such As rabbi Meir Kahane who do have explanations demonic Benvenisti they say the arabs Are doing it because they hate pure and when you Are dealing with demons like he you cannot react Mahanes Appeal to oust arabs rabbi Meir Kahane Center and he Page 14 the stars and stripes a photo stories by Thomas Friedman new York times when rabbi Meir Kahane was elected to the israels a year most israeli political commentator dismissed him As an american import and a racist Lunatic who would never find a serious following in israeli his they was a nobody is dismissing who advocates ousting All arabs from Israel and the occupied 1 territories and turning the country into a purely state that would be run according to jewish he is the most talked about political figure in Israel and by All indications his popularity is political commentators in Jerusalem say the Appeal of his which is especially Strong among Young has several roots arabs and jews Are treated differently under the Law in the occupied nationalism has become increasingly j personal violence Between jews and arabs has increased and Confidence in the leadership provided israels major parties has Mahanes the commentators appears to have made his ideas More respectable in the eyes of Many before his election a year Kahane was just an illness now he is an said Calouph associate director of the Van Leer Jerusalem a private research organization that sponsors education programs to promote Kahane is beginning to be accepted in centrist israeli said Gerald a professor of criminology at Ballan University in Ramat Gan who has been studying Mahanes rising who moved to Israel 14 years ago after founding the jewish defense league in new York concedes that the enormous Rise in his popularity is a recent he believes it is based on the mounting fears that israelis have of and on a desire by some israelis to end what they Call the Arab problem once and for i have touched a simple and honest nerve on the part of the Kahane said in measured tones in an interview at his office in the not All of these people out on the streets Are when parents come to me and say that they Are afraid to let their children play in the something is bothering i have spoken about this for the last 14 he i have not it is the situation that has everything in Israel has a and this is an idea whose time has signs of his support at the end of the Sahaf research Institute asked 600 israeli High school students Between the Ages of 15 and 18 whether they supported the views of rabbi some 42 percent of the students answered asked in the poll How they would vote if there was an election 11 percent of the students said they would cast their ballots for who won percent of the total vote in the july 1984 election five times As much As he received in and not quite believing the the right Wing newspaper Dediot Ahrnot conducted its own Survey and concluded Kahanim is gaining ground among the youth in All All Over the from All among the religious and the among ashkenazi and sephardi it is no longer a socially Marginet expression which can be dealt with it is turning into a real threat to the future of at the funeral recently of two jewish schoolteachers from Fula who the authorities say were murdered by Arab a demonstration was held in which people were heard to shout of Kahane what they once shouted of Ariel Sharon and Menachem begin King of Israel and Messiah they also shouted Lynch and the arabs Are everywhere All the major political pollsters in Israel agree that if National elections were held now Mahanes party which holds Only one of the 120 seats in the Knesset would increase its representation to five or six jewish settlers demonstrate against the release of palestinian virtually All at the expense of the righting liked such a showing would make it the biggest religious party and almost irresistible As a coalition partner for any righting on the municipal supporters of Kahane have already broken through into a governing in two members of his Kach party were elected to the nine member City Council in the West Bank jewish settlement of i Ryan outside in order to put together a ruling the settlement shalom agreed in july to sign an Accord with the two Kach representatives in which it was stipulated that the local Council will take action to immediately dismiss All Arab labourers employed by the local As Well As Arab workers in other institutions in the town and will award recommendations or permits solely to those businesses which Promise to employ Only jews and which do not establish joint enterprises with the coalition agreement also at Mahanes that driving be banned on the attorney general Yitzhak Zamir declared the coalition agreement null and void because it discriminates on the basis of racist the i Ryan Arba councilmen vowed to carry it frightened by Mahanes rising the Knesset passed by a vote of 66 to 0 a Bill designed specifically to outlaw his it bans from parliamentary elections any party that incites people to racism or negates israels democratic Kahane says he intends to get around the Law by having a supporter who is an Arab convert to Judaism run on his party list for the next israeli political commentators who have studied the Rise of Kahane say his popularity is the result of several factors that have been developing for to begin they the generation of israeli youths now coming of voting age was born after Israel occupied the West Bank and the Gaza strip during the 1967 since the 1967 War Israel has been a state with a double said a retired senior military children born since 1967 dont know what the Border is Between Israel and the occupied for them All arabs Are the and for them part of Israel is democratic and part is four and a Quarter million israelis live in a democracy and million arabs in the West Bank and Gaza strip live under military they dont have they dont have the right to organize they Are ruled by military when Kahane Calls for ousting the arabs from Hareven it no longer strikes some israeli youngsters As so shocking or so out of the Given the differences in treatment they have grown accustomed to observing in the daily lives of arabs and jews for the last 18 i have said it a million Kahane Western democracy As we know it is incompatible with zionism came into being to create a jewish zionism declares that there is going to be a jewish state with a majority of jews come what democracy if the arabs Are the majority then they have the right to decide their own so zionism and democracy Are at i say clearly that i stand with i want a jewish not a hebrew speaking the second Factor contributing to Mahanes the israeli analysts is that the ground was prepared for him by the Ultra nationalist liked government of prime minister Menachem begin Between 1977 and the increase in righting nationalist ideology under which gave Primacy to nation Over which limited the arabs rights in the West Bank a photo compared to the jews Only Laid the groundwork for said Kahanim is the Ultra nationalist logic played out to its final in the israeli commentators the language of politics what it is acceptable to say in Public was reshaped during the begin and particularly during the internal Battles during the Lebanon the commentators created an atmosphere in which Mahanes voice no longer sounded so Distant from the context of israeli when begin called the palestinians in Lebanon two legged animals and Eytan referred to them As cockroaches in a it was a Short step from there to the language of Kahane said his reference was to Rafael a former military chief of the third Factor that the israeli commentators say they believe has contributed to the Rise of Kahane is the marked increase in personal violence Between jews and arabs inside after the Israel army crushed the Palestine liberation organization in Lebanon and left it incapable of launching Cross order palestinian attacks on Israel took on a new apparently acting in most cases on their own initiative and using crude homemade weapons or pistols stolen from arabs living inside Israel and the occupied territories in the last two years have been blamed for killing 13 As a the Ara israeli conflict seems to have become More making individual arabs much More frightening to individual Kahane says he is Only articulating what is in the backs of the minds of Many my message is he said i dont say we have to do something about the i say we have a problem and heres my answer throw them you can think that is a terrible but at least it is a Clear i say we did not come out of exile to have our soldiers our women our children we left that in the August the stars and stripes Page 15