海角大神

Clinging to a barren hillside, the 鈥淏aladim鈥� outpost聽was little more than聽a solitary trailer, a farming tractor, a makeshift tent for shade, and a flock of goats.

But Israeli security authorities say Baladim and other hilltop outposts served as a base for a new generation of聽Jewish militants, disaffected youths who allegedly vandalized Holy Land churches and carried out a deadly arson attack in the nearby Palestinian village of Duma on聽July 31.聽Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced the attack, which killed Saad Dawabsha and his 18-month-old son Ali, as an act of 鈥淛ewish terrorism.鈥�

In just a few hours last Thursday, the police and the army cleared the Baladim encampment and two other outposts nearby.聽 It was part of聽a weeks-long crackdown on聽so-called 鈥減rice tag鈥� vigilantism meant to punish both Palestinians and Israeli security forces for moves against the settlements.聽

But now authorities are alleging that聽a hardened core of聽hilltop youths have adopted a strategy that聽goes beyond price-tag reprisals.聽They say this group,聽believed to have dozens of members, has drawn up a manifesto聽calling for a 鈥渞evolt鈥欌�� against Israel鈥檚 鈥渨icked鈥� secular government and聽its replacement聽with a Jewish theocracy that would bring a religious redemption.聽

Most Jewish settlers聽identify聽as聽mainstream religious Zionists聽and聽consider the hilltop rebels to be a group of teen dropouts who have drifted to the outposts where they absorb an extremist ideology.

"They are really a group of anarchists who are anti Zionists who don鈥檛 respect the rabbis and don鈥檛 respect the state, and distance themselves from Israeli authority,鈥欌�� says David Ha鈥檌vri, a resident of the Jewish settlement of Tapuach and a former spokesman for the local settler council there. 鈥淚t would be simplistic to call them extreme right wing.鈥�

Experts on Jewish radicalism, however, argue that the hilltop hardliners likely have plenty of sympathizers and supporters, both in the Jewish settlements and among Israel鈥檚 Orthodox Jews.

鈥淭his is an outgrowth of religious Zionism,鈥欌�� says Mordechai Inbari, a professor of religion at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. 鈥淭his is an ideological movement that has mentors, a program, texts, they have many books they publish. It鈥檚 not just a matter of crazy kids looking for ways to express their violence. It has leaders, and it has a program for action.鈥�

Security-first not tough enough

Both the experts and the mainstream settlers聽seem to agree that the vigilante attacks and their backers are driven in part by disillusionment with Israel鈥檚 government.聽While critics in the West assail Mr. Netanyahu for a security-first policy that allows little compromise with Palestinians,聽many far-right Israelis hold the opposite view.聽They point to too much lenience towards聽Palestinian militants and聽a failure to assert聽Israeli sovereignty in areas controlled by Arabs like the holy sites in Jerusalem鈥檚 Old City.聽They also blame the Israeli establishment for razing settlements 10 years ago when the military pulled out of the Gaza Strip.

鈥淚f you have a state which succumbs all the time to the creation of the Palestinian Authority on land allotted to Israel, if you see homegrown terrorism popping up around you, and the Temple Mount off limits to Jews 鈥撀爄f you see all this phenomena of weakness, there are going to be people who are unsatisfied, and are going to be more aggressive,鈥欌�� says Yishai Fleisher, a radio host at the Voice of Israel web-radio.聽

What sets apart the hilltop vigilantes from mainstream settlers is that they make an additional argument: Israel鈥檚 government聽has become聽a hostile entity hopelessly corrupted by Western, non-Jewish political values.

Israel has a history of violent acts motivated by religious conviction聽among Jews. In the 1980s, a Jewish underground carried out attacks on Palestinian buses,聽university students, and mayors, and in the mid-1990s, religious opponents of Israel鈥檚 peace talks with the Palestinians took the law into their hands, most notably聽with聽the assassination of the Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin by Yigal Amir.

鈥淥ne common denominator is that they [radicals] have some of the same spiritual authorities,鈥欌�� says Dan Ephron, the author of a forthcoming book on the Rabin assassination, 鈥淜illing a King.鈥� Though there are no specific calls by rabbis for violence, "it鈥檚 enough for rabbis to talk about incendiary issues in the yeshivas."

No welcome for journalists

At the abandoned 鈥淏aladim鈥� hilltop near Kochav HaShachar, a handful of outpost residents with oversized knit skullcaps and wild sidelocks remain, looking slightly bewildered. 鈥淎re you here to help? Are you from the settlement?鈥� one asks. When this Monitor correspondent identifies as a reporter, the youth recoil. 鈥淚鈥檓 not giving information, interviews, or being photographed,鈥欌�� says another, and gives a strong menacing handshake.

Less than a mile away at Kochav Hashahcar, a religious Zionist settlement where some of the youths at Baladim grew up, residents said the outpost聽had聽moved several times聽before the recent eviction.聽Those who lived there were聽involved in聽goat herding and agriculture, they said. Neither residents nor the settlement spokeswoman聽were willing to discuss the聽outpost鈥檚 alleged role in the recent attacks.

An alleged hilltop document released by the Shin Ben lays out a 鈥渕eans of action鈥� and recommends establishing small vigilante cells because 鈥渢he chances of establishing an organized underground against this foreign rule are so big.鈥欌�� The document discusses the pros and cons of carrying out arson attacks on a mosque, Palestinian homes, and churches 鈥� which are considered places of idolatry. 聽

The strategy behind the attacks, according a separate 鈥渇ounding鈥� manifesto released by the Shin Bet, was to target certain 鈥渧ulnerable points鈥� that would inflame the country and lead to the collapse of liberal democracy and the rise of a Jewish theocracy. No one has disputed the authenticity of the document.聽

Limited prosecutions of vigilantism

So far, only a small handful of hilltop youths have been indicted for attacks on 海角大神 sites or Palestinian villages.聽No one has been charged for the arson聽attack in Duma.聽However, authorities have imposed restraining orders and house arrests on settlers accused of being part of the radical fringe.

Yesh Din, a human rights group, says Israel has done little to prosecute perpetrators of vigilante violence. Before the arson in Duma, the organization handled 15 cases of house burnings, but zero indictments came out of it.聽

Honeinu, a legal aid organization which represents hilltop youth聽arrested by聽Israeli legal authorities, says the allegations of Jewish terrorism have been inflated and that the government is rounding up 鈥渁nyone who looks like a hilltop youth鈥� at hilltops like Baladim and in the region around the nearby settlement of Shiloh.聽

Despite the crackdown against Baladim and other outposts, observers聽say there are legal and political impediments to a wider campaign of arrests and indictments in terror cases involving Jews. Law enforcement officials lack the infrastructure, legal tools, and political backing that exists for counter terrorism against Arab groups, these observers say.聽

鈥淚t will always be more interesting to deal with other security threats, rather than deal with administrative detention and restraining orders for Jewish terrorists,鈥欌�� wrote Yuval Diskin, a former Shin Bet Chief, on his Facebook page last month. 鈥淲ith a government based on right wing parties, a political and rabbinic lobby, it doesn鈥檛 make political sense either.鈥�