Epstein and Rosenberg Vancouver Sun Article, March 4, 1994 (fwd)

[D Shniad <shniad@xxxxxx>]

Forwarded message:
Date:  7 Mar 94 10:45 -0800
From: "Richard S. Rosenberg" <rosen@xxxxxxxxx>
To: shniad@xxxxxx
Subject: Epstein and Rosenberg Vancouver Sun Article, March 4, 1994

Horror in Hebron

Norman Epstein and Richard S. Rosenberg

The recent wanton killing of 40 Palestinians at prayer in the Tomb of the
Patriarchs in the West bank city of Hebron by U.S. immigrant Dr. Baruch
Goldstein has been characterized by Israeli government spokesmen as the
act of a deranged individual.  The massacre by Marc Lepine of 14 women at
lUEcole Polytechnique in Montreal on December 6, 1989, was similarly
characterized by those in Canada who wished to minimize the significance
of the act.  Both deeds, however, represented a dramatic acting out on
behalf of a large number of like-minded people of their loathsome social
attitudes - misogynist in 1989 and racist in 1994.  This is especially obvious
in the latter case, where friends and supporters of the killer have been
hailing him as, R... a hero, a righteous and holy man who acted on behalf of
all Jewish people.S   In addition, the Jewish fascist (literally, not
figuratively) movement of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, Kach and its
splinter, Kahane Chai (RKahane LivesS), has been garnering financial
support through the New York-based Kach International.  Kahane has his
admirers in Vancouver too.

Excluding East Jerusalem, the number of Jewish settlers inhabiting the
Occupied Territories is presently estimated at about 120,000, of which 15-
20% are immigrants from North America.  They live in 144 settlements, of
which 19 are in the Gaza Strip.  Presently about 70% of the land in the West
Bank, populated by some 1.1 million Palestinians, has been expropriated by
Israel as well as 34% of the Gaza Strip.  Per capita, the West Bank Jewish
settlers have access to, and use, four times as much water as the
Palestinians, while in Gaza, fewer than 5000 Jewish settlers use one-third
of the underground water, the remaining two-thirds being shared by
750,000 Palestinians.  (Most figures are taken from Zealots for Zion, by
Robert I. Friedman, Random House, New York, 1992.)

Most of the settlers were motivated to move from Israel proper into the
Occupied Territories by the low cost housing, supportive infrastructure, and
other amenities provided by successive Israeli governments, especially
those led by Likud.  It has been estimated that some 5-10% of them are
followers or fellow-travellers of the Gush Emunim, or Bloc of the Faithful.
This movement of rabid ultra-nationalist Orthodox Jewish zealots is driven
by a fiercely held messianic belief that God intended Jews to occupy the
West Bank as part of a Greater Israel.  This belief, more than any reactive
hostilities by Arab religious or political extremists, provides them with self-
justification for their recurrent rampages and interminable acts of brutality
against their Palestinian neighbours, whose outright expulsion many of
them openly advocate.  Israeli officialdom has now made some gestures
toward curbing the activities of a select few of these outlaws, but insist that
the problem of settlements must, according to the terms of the September
agreement, be postponed for at least another two years.  And meanwhile
settlement construction continues, despite the fact that explicit economic
incentives for moving across the Green Line have been eliminated by the
Labour-Meretz government,

A recent Israeli poll on whether or not Palestinian RautonomyS will
actually develop into a fully independent state yielded 47% affirmative
answers as against 40% opposed, with 13% abstaining.  General Nissim
Zvili, Secretary of the ruling Labour Party, stated on February 11th: RI
never heard of an autonomy anywhere in the world which did not eventually
lead to independence.  Whether we like it or not, by the year 2000 the
Palestinian state will be a fact.S  Palestinian public opinion, especially after
the recent massacre, is much less enchanted with the Rpeace process.S  Any
realistic final accommodation leading to a Palestinian state will require that
Jewish settlers either remain where they are, but under Palestinian
jurisdiction, or abandon the Territories completely.  One can be sure that
the messianic zealots will, within their means, offer a desperately violent
resistance to accepting either alternative.  However, even the possibility of
ever proceeding to a final accommodation may be pre-empted if settler
violence and settlement expansion are not immediately curbed, if all the
settlers are not disarmed, and if the process of dismantling these provocative
colonial enclaves is not soon begun.  In the coming weeks we shall see if
the Israeli public has the political will to force its government to adopt such
measures.

			March 4, 1994
Norman Epstein  	Richard S. Rosenberg	Vancouver Sun
901-2233 Allison Rd.	4775 Chancellor Blvd.
Vancouver, B.C.	Vancouver, B.C.
V6T 1T7	V6T 1C8
are members of Jews for a Just Peace, Vancouver.