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From Everyone attack Cauley Chevrolet

VERY SMARTLEASE

1994 Corvette

A Cave With
No Way Out?

Reopening the Cave of the Patriarchs, and
appeasing both Jews and Muslims
in the process, is a daunting task.

INA FRIEDMAN ISRAEL CORRESPONDENT

erhaps the strongest sign
that the lazy days of sum-
mer are over is the battle
brewing between the corn-
munity of settlers in Kiryat Arba
and Hebron and Yitzhak Rabin's
government. At issue is the an-
nouncement that the Cave of the
Patriarchs probably will not be
reopened in time for the holidays.
The holy site — a Byzantine
church that later was converted
into a mosque and was opened to
worship by Jews after the
Six-Day War — has been closed
ever since the massacre there of
29 Palestinians by Dr. Baruch
Goldstein, a resident of Kiryat
Arba, last Feb. 25.

p

$399

ferent halls, separated by elec-
tronically operated doors or gates;
or by setting separate times for
the two communities to use the
building.
Expert opinions are divided on
the best course of action. While
Chief of Staff Ehud Barak and
the General Security Services fa-
vor separating Muslim and Jew-
ish worshipers in different halls,
the head of the Israel Defense
Force's Central Command, the
settlers, and their champions in
the National Religious Party are
pushing for separate times for
worship because it will give them
access to all the halls with the
various tombs at the site.

PHTO BY RNS/REUTERS

PER
MONTH*

air ■ stereo tape ■ removable 300 h.p. LTI engine ■ automatic
roof panel ■ passive entry and ABS ■ driver/passenger side air
alarm ■ power windows and bags ■ traction control
locks ■ speed control ■ tilt wheel leather bucket seats ■

Settlers pray with a Torah outside the Cave of the Patriarchs after the court's
findings were released..

• •■ •• • 1. 1 •1 ,"1,1 1"

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Jack

Cauley
.x ■ ismoiesewsime0257

AcCvaFifrivRatET

Gee.

855.9700
OPEN SATURDAYS 8 a.m. - 4 p.m.

ORCHARD LAKE RD.

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10

HOURS: Mon. & Thurs. 8:30 a.m.-9 p.m., Tues. 8:00 a.m. - 6 p.m., Wed. & Fri. 8:30 a.m.-6 p.m.

Two months ago, the Shamgar
Commission of Inquiry, appoint-
ed to investigate the circum-
stances surrounding the
massacre, published its recom-
mendation that Jews and Mus-
lims be assigned separate
entrances to the building; that
the internal security facilities be
enhanced; and, above all, that the
Jewish and Muslim worshipers
be kept apart during times of
prayer.
Since then, responsibility for
the site has been transferred from
the Israeli Army to the Border
Guard (an arm of the Israeli Po-
lice), and the government has in-
vested some $1.4 million in
sophisticated equipment, from
metal-detecting gates to a closed-
circuit video system. Still to be
decided, however, is how to keep
the Jewish and Muslim wor-
shipers out of each other's way
(and reach) during times of
prayer: by restricting them to dif-

One compromise put forward
is that each community's wor-
shipers be restricted to specific
halls during the week but the en-
tire building be open to Jewish
worshipers on the Sabbath and
Jewish holidays and available to
Muslim worshipers on Fridays
and Muslim festivals.
Meanwhile, it seems that the
government's most devout wish
is merely to get through the up-
coming holiday season without
having to deal with the problems
posed by reopening the site —
which are far from merely tech-
nical. The greatest fear is that the
return of worshipers to the scene
of the massacre will enflame hos-
tilities between Israelis and
Palestinians in Hebron, where
relations have remained tense
since last February.
"Reopening the Cave of the Pa-
triarchs," a Ha'aretz editorial read
this week, "means returning to
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