World
Disengagement
Aftermath
After Israeli Jew's terror attack, analysts wonder about Gaza plan.
LESLIE SUSSER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Jerusalem
sraeli security officials long have
warned that as the Gaza withdraw-
al approached, a Jewish extremist
might try to stage a spectacular attack,
shocking the nation and leading the gov-
ernment to call off the evacuation plan.
Primarily, they were braced for an
assassination attempt on Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon or an attack on army and
police units called in to empty Gaza set-
tlements. But after an AWOL Israeli sol-
dier went berserk Aug. 4, opening fire
and killincb four Israeli Arabs on a bus in
the Galilee town Shfaram — raising the
prospect of Arab riots or revenge attacks
on.Jews — pundits are asking what
effect, if any, the attack will have on the
withdrawal, which is scheduled to begin
in mid-August.
The soldier, a 19-year-old army
deserter named Eden Natan Zada, who
also used the name Tzuberi, boarded a
bus bound for Shfaram, an Israeli Arab
town in northern Israel on the main
road between Haifa and Nazareth.
I
As the bus pulled into
Shfaram, Zada sprang to
his feet and sprayed auto-
matic fire in all directions,
killing four people and
wounding about a dozen.
In one account, people
on the bus overpowered
and killed Zada as he tried
to change magazines in his
gun. In another, an
incensed mob stormed the
bus and lynched the soldier
after police had disarmed
Eden Natan
him.
A mob refused to allow Zada's corpse
to be removed or the bus to be towed
away. The police's immediate task was to
prevent the crowd from becoming
unruly or moving on to Jewish towns to
wreak vengeance.
Israeli Arab political leaders also
rushed to the scene. Some blamed the
army and the Shin Bet security service
for failing to pre-empt the outrage.
Israeli Arabs' relations with the state
are volatile, with a number of major
clashes leaving deep scars. In May 1976,
six Israeli Arabs were killed during
demonstrations against
land expropriation on
what came to be known as
"Land Day." In autumn
2000, at the start of the
Palestinian intifada, 12
Israeli Arabs were killed in
clashes with police during
riots in the Galilee.
Those were defining
moments in Israeli Arab
attitudes toward the state
and Israeli Jews' attitudes
toward the Arab minority,
Zada
fueling mutual suspicions.
But the lesson of those bitter experiences
could lead Arab leaders to steer a more
moderate course this time.
The soldier's shooting spree most
resembles the February 1994 killing of
29 Muslim worshipers in a Hebron
mosque by Dr. Baruch Goldstein, a
fanatic from the nearby settlement of
Kiryat Arba. Like Goldstein, Zada is
associated with an extremist West Bank
settlement, Tapuah. Also like Goldstein,
he is said to have been an activist in the
anti-Arab Kach movement, which has
been officially banned as racist.
Now What?
Some see ambition; others see West Bank fight.
Jerusalem/JTA
enjamin Netanyahu's resigna-
tion from the Israeli Cabinet
may have come too late to scut-
tle Israel's planned withdrawal from
Gaza and the northern West Bank, but
it seems almost certain to change the
face of Israeli politics.
Leaving the Finance Ministry just 10
days before the pullout is scheduled to
begin, Netanyahu threw down a chal-
lenge to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
and set in motion a process that could
split the ruling Likud Party.
Most pundits are convinced that the
move will not derail the Gaza pullout,
but it could considerably strengthen the
Israeli right in its opposition to further
withdrawals from the West Bank.
Netanyahu was widely praised as
finance minister for initiating tough
B
Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at a news
conference after handing in his resigna-
tion as Israel's finance minister at the
Cabinet meeting on Sunday.
policies that led the economy from near
collapse to robust growth. But analysts
say his resignation is unlikely to lead to
any major policy changes or have a last-
ing economic impact.
As for Netanyahu's political future,
leading pundits see in the move a huge
gamble that could vault him into prime
minister — or consign him to the far-
right margin of Israeli politics.
At a dramatic news conference
Sunday, Netanyahu gave just one reason
for his resignation: the withdrawal from
Gaza and the northern West Bank will
be catastrophic for Israel's security Gaza
will become a base for Palestinian terror-
ism and its port will be a conduit for
terrorist weapons, while giving away ter-
ritory with no quid pro quo from the
Palestinians will encourage more terror-
ism, he argued. "I cannot be party to
this," Netanyahu declared.
Why, if the policy is so dangerous,
On Sunday, the Al-Aksa Brigade said
a shooting attack in the West Bank in
which a 10-year-old Israeli boy was criti-
cally wounded came in response to
Zada's attack.
Zada was buried Sunday in Rishon le-
Zion. Local residents, fearing his grave
could become a shrine for Jewish
extremists, had originally balked at
allowing him to be buried in the town.
The ceremony took place only after
Rishon's mayor, Meir Nitzan, was con-
vinced to hold the burial there.
The most serious question, though, is
whether the soldier acted alone or was
part of a wider extremist group planning
further violent acts in a last-gasp attempt
to subvert the withdrawal. The Yesha
settler council denounced the attack, as
did Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and
Israeli politicians from across the politi-
cal spectrum.
Why wasn't Zada picked up by the
army or the Shin Bet? His family claims
it told the army where to find the
deserter. The Shin Bet also seems to
have known of Zada's whereabouts, so
why didn't it tell the army or detain
him? 0
hadn't he resigned earlier, when it might
have been possible to change things?
Netanyahu replied that he didn't believe
stepping down earlier would have made
any difference and that he first wanted
to push through his economic reforms.
Hanan Krystal, a veteran Israel politi-
cal analyst, says Netanyahu believes the
withdrawal plan will collapse under a
wave of Palestinian terrorism. That will
strengthen his national standing by
proving his analysis correct.
Netanyahu then has a two-stage plan
to regain the premiership, according to
Krystal: Netanyahu will capture the
Likud by appealing to the far right.
Once installed as party leader, he will
move back to the political center, recall-
ing concessions he made to the Pales-
tinians as prime minister in the 1990s.
Some pundits argue that the impor-
tance of Netanyahu's resignation is not
Gaza but the rest of the West Bank.
With Netanyahu in power leading the
opposition, right-wing settlers are con-
vinced they'll have a much better
chance of holding on to dozens of West
Bank settlements that may be targeted
in any later evacuations.
❑
8/11
2005
59