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LEVINGER FACTOR page 80

was irresistibly Zionist. Hebron,
where King David ruled before
moving his capital to Jerusalem,
was a Jewish holy city. Jews had
lived there, albeit as a minority,
for centuries until they were
slaughtered and expelled by an
Arab mob in 1929.
Yigal Allon, the quintessential
sabra hero, kibbutznik, Palmach
commander, Labor cabinet min-
ister, was one of Rabbi Levinger's
earliest backers. For him, the re-
settlement of Hebron touched an
historic nerve.
Rabbi Levinger was careful
never to demand too much. A few
more Jews, an archaeological site
here, another apartment block
there, extended hours for Jewish
worship in the shrine. In the clas-
sic Zionist tradition, the rabbi cre-
ated facts.
But unlike his pioneering pre-
decessors, Rabbi Levinger was
not hoodwinking the British, or
the Arabs. He was seducing Is-
raeli administrations into deep-
er commitments. To have refused
him would have seemed a be-
trayal of their own ideals.
Rabbi Levinger's tactics were
gradualist, but his goals were
radical.
His New York-born wife, Miri-
am, who led a dozen women and
their children to squat in a for-
mer Hadassah clinic and defy Mr.
Begin to evict them, once told me:
"We are a link in the chain of the
return. Until 1929 there was un-
broken Jewish settlement here
from the time of the Second Tem-
ple. We want to re-establish a
Jewish community in Hebron.
"It's like wiping away the
shame of an iniquity. Auschwitz
I can't fix. What Khomeini is do-
ing to the Jews of Iran I can't fix.
Hebron I can fix."
The rabbi lived by his own
rules. He cooperated with the
government and the army so long
as it served his purpose, but his
personal imperatives took prece-
dence. "He would sit in my office
for hours," Yehoshua Ben-
Shachal, a former military gov-
ernor of Hebron, reminisced, "and
explain to me why he had to riot."
If force were "needed", Rabbi
Levinger endorsed force. He tes-
tified in support of the "Jewish
Underground", who were con-
victed in the early eighties of
killing and maiming Arab stu-
dents and politicians, as well as
plotting to blow up Al Aqsa
mosque to clear the site for re-
building the Jewish Temple in
Jerusalem.
After an Israeli girl was killed
by rockthrowing Arabs, Levinger
preached "Blood for blood." His
campaign commercials in the
1992 elections showed him tot-
ing his gun and strutting through
the casbah.
Once, when his car was stoned,
he fired indiscriminately, killing
an Arab shopkeeper. He was of-
ten arrested, occasionally pros-
ecuted.

Other leaders have taken up
the running now, but the baton
they carry has Rabbi Levinger's
name on it. They are still daring
a Zionist Government to cast
Jews out of the city of Abraham,
the city of David. And they are
still ready to fight if their bluff is
called.
Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon
Peres would like nothing better
than to be rid of them. The cost,
in lives and money, of protecting
the 40 or so hardline families of
downtown Hebron is out of all
proportion. So is the potential
damage to peace with the Pales-
tinians.
Yet the two old men, function-
ing these days as if they were
joint Prime Ministers, know that
the settlers, in Hebron and Kiry-
at Arba are armed. No one is bet-
ting that they would go quietly
just because a democratically
elected government ordered them
out.
Mr. Rabin, in particular, is
acutely conscious of having to car-
ry the nation with him. As an ex-
army man, he is wary of trying
to fight on too many fronts until
the talks reach the final stage,
when permanent maps and re-
lationships will be drawn but the
status quo will already have
changed.
The last thing he needs is to be
diverted from the interim nego-
tiations by a premature show-
down — with the swing voters
who will decide his fate at the
polls in 1996, and with the
Labour doubters who have to be
convinced that he is not exposing
them to unacceptable risks.
And if that means contortion,
his government will have to con-
tort. ❑

Arab Owned Land
Available For Road

Jerusalem (JTA) — The High
Court of Justice has cleared the
way for Israel to expropriate
Palestinian-owned land to build
bypass roads.
The roads would be part of the
plan to redeploy Israel Defense
Force troops in the West Bank.
The court rejected a Palestin-
ian petition, which asked that
land past Nablus and Jenin not
be used for the roads.
The court accepted the argu-
ment of the head of central com-
mand, Maj. Gen. Ilan Biran, who
said the roads were essential for
security in the redeployment
plan.
He said the roads would be
used by Jewish settlers in the re-
gion during the interim phase, as
w_ell_as by S_CI 1 ritv forces_.

