UP FRONT Vigilantes Continued from preceding page TRADITION. Isn't there one more worth carrying on? Friday night. The end of the week. The beginning of Shabbat. A time to relax, reflect and renew. And as much a part of this tradition as the candles and the challah was knowing the weekly Jewish News had also arrived. It brought news about the community, the nation and the world. Today, that tradition hasn't changed. In fact, it's gotten better. Each week award-winning journalists combine the warmth of community with world issues using candor and compassion to strengthen Jewish identity and...tradition. Keep the tradition alive. Give a Jewish News subscription to a friend, a relative, as a special gift. If you don't subscribe, (and you find yourself always reading someone else's copy) maybe it's time to start your own tradition. The Jewish News. It's a tradition worth keeping. THE JEWISH NEWS No Other Publication Has More Faith r 1 Save 40% over the newsstand price. Receive 52 award winning weekly issues plus five separate Style magazine supplements for only $31.00 (out-of-state $41.00). ❑ Yes! I want to be a faithful reader of the Jewish ❑ Why should I be the only one to enjoy? I'd like to News, I'd like to order my own subscription. send a gift subscription. Send my thoughtful gift to: My Name Name My Address Address City State Zip City State Gift card to read Please send all payments along with this coupon to: Jewish News, 27676 Franklin Road, Southfield, MI 48034 Or call (313) 354-6060 and charge your order to Mastercard or Visa. L 12 FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1991 Zip always been regarded as strictly a security issue. In light of the recent terrorist attacks and the increased danger on the roads in the territories, over the past few weeks 35 rabbis serving the Jewish settlements have organized into a new body and issued halachic (rab- binical) rulings defining the new situation as pikuach nefesh, or life and death. Without going into details, the gist of the ruling is that radical steps are in order. Moreover, for the religious settlers in the territories (who make up some 40 per- cent of the Jewish popula- tion there), a halachic ruling is more than a recommended suggestion. It carries the force of an obligation, giving the rabbis considerably more clout than the settlers' es- tablished political leader- ship. If the Judea, Samaria, and Gaza Council (or set- tlers' lobby) adopts a certain policy, any resident in the territories can embrace or ignore it as he sees fit. But a halachic ruling is binding upon practicing Jews unless and until it is reversed by a higher authority. The result has been quite predictable. "The law is fin- ished around here," settler Ephraim Meir told an Israeli journalist last week. "From now on the law will be perceived here according to our ideological approach, and that means that if there's a clash between the laws of the state and the laws of the Torah, we'll give preference to the laws of the Torah." Alert to such undercur- rents, defense analyst Ze'ev Schiff of the prestigious dai- ly Ha' aretz has intimated that taken to extremes, this turnabout could generate an Israeli version of the Hez- bollah, and everything it implies. Until now, the rabbis have been careful about issuing rulings that require a specific course of action. The most prominent exception has been the license, by Rabbi Eliyakim Levanon of the Samarian settlement of Alon Moreh, to uproot trees on Palestinian land. That caused an extended uproar after a group of settlers first butchered the ancient olive trees near their settlement, then uprooted the saplings planted to replace them and, as a parting shot, arrogated the young trees for the beau- tification of Alon Moreh. The upshot of this latest ferment is a slew of new strains on the fabric of rela- tions between Israelis on the two sides of the Green Line. Once again the settlers are openly at odds with the army, and an oft-quoted senior officer has already complained about having to allocate forces to restrain the errant settlers, at the expense of the security of all the rest. Since Chief of Staff Ehud Barak has made it clear that the army will not be able to ensure absolute security in the territories (or anywhere else in Israel, for that matter), some observers fear the emergence of local militias to fill the vacuum — what the pols call the "Lebanonization of Israel." The rise of the rabbis has also upset members of the settlers' present leadership, who rightly fear they may be undermined by a more com- pelling force. Yet beyond the manifest shifts and clashes, there is a A halachic ruling is binding upon practicing Jews unless and until it is reversed by a higher authority. deeper political import to the turnabout of the past few weeks. Ostensibly, the ac- tivist approach is designed, plain and simple, to deter Palestinian violence. "The political aim of the latest actions is to cause the Palestinians to fear the set- tlers more than they fear Hamas," explains settler Yonit Avihazar of Hebron. But sophisticated observers like Mr. Schiff believe that the real signal being being broadcast by the settlers is not just to the local the Pa- lestinians but to the Israeli government, and the real issue at hand is less security for Israelis today than autonomy for Palestinians tomorrow. "The settlers' actions," he writes, "are designed to say to the government, the IDF, and the public at large: We will not permit the estab- lishment of Palestinian autonomy in the ter- ritories." There is strong cor- roborating evidence for this view. While Eliyakim Rubinstein was negotiating in the corridor of the State Department last week, the new body of West Bank rabbis published a letter imploring him "not to lend your hand to the dangerous autonomy program," and forces signing themselves as "Kach" sprayed the word "traitor" on his front door. ❑