Disengagement The Disengagement Summer As zero hour nears, Israeli forces fear violent worst-case scenarios. rEL AVIV BARBARA OPALL-ROME Jewish Telegraphic Agency Tel Aviv T he column of armored sport- utility vehicles waited, engirres humming, as a phalanx of bodyguards ushered Prime Minister Ariel Sharon into the third truck from the end. As the convoy cleared the main gate of the Israeli government head's resi- dence, a set of decoy vehicles turned north, toward Jerusalem, while the remaining units proceeded south toward the Negev, where Sharon planned to tour absorption sites being built for hundreds of Israeli families soon to be evacuated from their Gaza Strip homes. For Sharon, the site inspections this spring were a welcome excursion beyond his Jerusalem office com- pound or his Negev ranch. But for officers charged with protective secu- rity, the outing rivaled an elite combat operation. Hours earlier, crack teams descended on each of the six kibbutzim and farm- ing villages on the morning's itinerary, creating "sterile" zones for Sharon to meet with pre-screened residents and local leaders. At each stop, a bridge- head of agents cleared the way for the advancing prime minister while, 15,000 feet overhead, an unmanned reconnaissance drone scanned the scene with high-powered optics. "We don't spare any effort, money and tools in order to protect the prime minister from the growing threat," Avi Dichter, the recently retired director of Israel's Shin Bet security service, told JTA. Dichter was talking less about Palestinian terrorists seeking to harm Sharon than about "Jewish ultra- extremists who are sure that one way to block the disengagement is by harming, if not killing, the prime min- ister," he said, _referring to the contro- versial plan to withdraw Israeli soldiers and settlers from the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank that Sharon pushed through his government. 8/11 2005 54 As the planned mid-August pullout approaches, many fear that protests against the Sharon government could give way to acts of violence. As ring- leaders from the far right vow to thwart the withdrawal, security offi- cials are increasingly warning of the prospect of Jewish terrorism. Those warnings appeared prescient Aug. 4, when an AWOL Israeli soldier reportedly known for his extremist ideology went on a shooting rampage on a bus in the Israeli Arab town of Shfaram, killing four people and wounding 12. An enraged mob lynched Cpl. Natan Eden Zada, 19, when he stopped shooting. Israeli gov- ernment officials and leaders of the Yesha settlers council condemned the attack as an act of terrorism. According to Dichter, the Shin Bet has assessed a number of scenarios, including the prospect of a Jewish sui- cide bomber. "We're not ruling out a Jewish suicide bomber who might use tamut nafihi pilishtim' as his ration- ale," Dichter said, referring to Samson's words in the Bible as he brought down the Philistine temple around himself, "Let me die with the Philistines." The Knesset Finance Committee last month authorized a budgetary increase of nearly $90 million to cover extra costs associated with Sharon's personal protection, which a committee aide estimated at some $230 million a year. JORDAN • 100: -, OF GAZA TO BE EVACUATED ANO HANDED OVER TO THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY • 21 ISRAELI sETTLEINIENTs TO BE UPROOTED , N THE GAZA STRIP • 9.000 APPROX. ISRAELIS EYACUATE0 SOLDIERS AND POLICE Ei S i .74 8,_ , ....10N - APPRox. co5r OF• THE wTH3R.ZAWAL. 41, 5380.000 AVERAC- .E. FRO!-1 THE iSRAELI E.JOVERNMENT EACH RELor.:,,TED FA ,..ttLY Tp,„ • Rabin Influence While many protective measures were mandated by a commission of inquiry following the 1995 assassination of then Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin — and extended to a wider net of officials after Palestinian terrorists murdered Tourism Minister Rechavam Ze'evi in October 2001— one recently retired Shin Bet official said the security around Sharon was unprecedented and was directly related to the Jewish terror threat. Even as the atmosphere grew increasingly menacing, with political opponents and rabbinical authorities demanding Rabin's removal for his "traitorous" dealings with the then Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat, his 1995 slaying by a religious university student stunned Israel and the world. In retrospect, said Hezi Kalo, a for- mer Shin Bet official, the incitement against Rabin pales in comparison with the invective hurled at Sharon and supporters of the withdrawal plan, such as "Sharon: Lily is waiting for you," a reference to the prime minis- ter's recently deceased wife. Since Sharon began talking of with- drawal in December 2003, opponents of the plan have blocked roadways, planted dummy bombs in public places, and blanketed the country with plac- ards and banners pillorying the prime minister as a "traitor" and a "fascist." Rabbinic authorities — including two former Israeli chief rabbis — have