Word: hebron
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...ashamed at the scenes of Jews opening fire at innocent Arabs.' EHUD OLMERT, Israel's outgoing Prime Minister, comparing violence in the city of Hebron to bygone anti-Semitism in Europe...
...Thursday's rioting began after Israeli security forces launched a surprise raid on a house in the Palestinian part of Hebron occupied by settlers whose eviction had been ordered by the Supreme Court. Young settlers from the militant, although largely formless and leaderless Hilltop Youth movement had flocked to Hebron vowing to resist the eviction at all cost. If the court order was implemented, they warned, Israel would experience the trauma of Jew killing Jew. They also threatened that the price tag of an eviction would take the form of random violence against Palestinian innocents. But by catching the diehards...
...Hebron events are unlikely to affect the outcome of Israel's election in February. Polls show conservative Likud Party candidate and former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holding a solid lead over acting Prime Minister Tzipi Livni, with Defense Minister Ehud Barak - who ordered the Hebron raid on the same day his Labor Party held its primary election - running a very distant third. But their impact on other players in the West Bank may be profound: the actions of the Hilltop Youth were condemned and strongly discouraged by the long-established settler leadership of the Yesha Council, who recognized that young...
...other big loser from Thursday's Hebron riots may be the Palestinian Authority (PA) of President Mahmoud Abbas. Last month, a U.S.-trained battalion of the authority's security men was deployed in Hebron to great fanfare, underscoring Abbas' intention to assert control of a city whose political sympathies are with the militant Hamas movement. As settlers rampaged through Palestinian neighborhoods on Thursday night, Palestinian civilians were crying out for protection from those meant to ensure their security. But the PA security forces were nowhere to be found, under strict orders from their commanders to avoid confrontation with the settlers...
...militant settler threat had prompted the Israeli government to hesitate for three weeks before implementing the court order on the Hebron eviction, but whether the raid emboldens the government to act against other settlements constructed outside of Israeli law remains to be seen - and will be determined, in no small part, by how events in Hebron unfold in the coming hours and days. The question may become somewhat moot if the current indicators on the likely outcome of February's election hold true, because Netanyahu has an ideological aversion to ceding territory in the West Bank and has made...