Israeli Settlers Vow To Resist
Jewish settlers on Monday vowed to oppose Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's order to dismantle four unauthorized West Bank outposts, warning of large-scale resistance if soldiers come to evacuate their communities.
Sharon signed the evacuation order on Sunday, a move that his justice minister called encouraging but only the start of what must be a wider push to get rid of the outposts. Only one of the four, Ginnot Arieh, is inhabited.
In another development, Israeli security officials warned that militant groups are planning a major attack on New Year's Eve, possibly targeting holy sites, kindergartens, apartment buildings and hospitals.
Police have been told to prepare for an air- or sea-based attack, or a ground assault involving several simultaneous suicide bombings, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Police declined to comment.
Meanwhile, Israel is moving ahead with a plan for unilateral separation from the Palestinians, reports CBS News Correspondent Robert Berger.
Sharon has appointed a special security adviser to flesh out a plan to draw a unilateral border, if peace talks with the Palestinians fail.
Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat called it the wrong decision at the wrong time.
"I think the Israeli government should create peace with us, should create the mechanisms to revive the peace process with us," he said.
But Israel doubts that the Palestinians will dismantle terrorist groups as demanded by the road map peace plan, so is preparing to move on its own.
Israel is required to dismantle more than 100 West Bank outposts under the U.S.-backed "road map" peace plan, but has not fulfilled its obligation.
The settlers believe Biblical Law commands Jews to settle the land, reports Berger.
"To think of removing Jews from their places is evil," said settler Rabbi Haim Druckman.
Even with Monday's signing of a removal order by the head of the defense forces' central command, it could still be a week before any action is taken.
Oren Brund, the secretary of Ginnot Arieh, said the 10 families who live in the hilltop neighborhood would appeal to Israel's Supreme Court. Settlers will oppose the evacuation if the court rules against them.
"They Yesha (Settlers') Council will bring thousands of people here and we will not move," Brund told Israel Radio. "There will be a clash … there will not be a violent confrontation."
In the past, thousands of Jewish settlers have gathered at unauthorized outposts and clashed with soldiers and police officers who came to dismantle the hilltop neighborhoods.
Troops have been forced to physically remove and drag settler men, women, children and teenagers from the area. While settlers are heavily armed, there has never been any gunfire directed at Israeli soldiers.
Housing Minister Effie Eitam, a strong advocate of the settlers, said Monday that he would support the dismantling of the outposts if they cannot be legalized.
"If in the end after all the processes are exhausted, it will not be possible to give legal permits to these outposts, then what will not be legal, we will not be able to support," he told Army Radio.
The United States has pressured Israel to dismantle the outposts, many of them no more than a trailer and an Israeli flag on a barren hilltop. The four outposts Sharon ordered removed are scattered throughout the West Bank. At least one has been removed before, but was rebuilt.
Sharon is also under pressure from some members of his own government to remove the outposts.
"The dismantlement of three, four outposts, among them unpopulated outposts, doesn't solve the massive problem of the illegal outposts," Justice Minister Tommy Lapid told Israel Radio. "They (the outposts) ruin our relations with the Americans, they ruin our relations with the Europeans, they have no benefit ... Israel is dragging its feet."
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