ISRAEL'S POTENT ENEMY WITHIN

While Israel braces for violence from West Bank settlements, which it has allowed to expand in contravention of international agreements, the EU has privately warned its members to take action to halt the flow of settler-produced goods into European markets.
The potential threat of violence from Jewish settlers became apparent recently after fierce clashes between the Israeli police over what were called illegal outposts on the West Bank. There was also a warning by Yuval Diskin, head of the country’s internal security agency, Shin Bet, that there was a pressing danger the conflict with settlers could spiral out of control in coming months His remarks were made at a Cabinet meeting and led to speculation in news outlets that he thought extremists were planning to assassinate the prime minister or a leading political figure to make their case. It would not be the first time something like that has happened. A decade ago, the Israeli prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated because he was perceived to be a peacemaker.
Diskin was, however, quite specific that any future violence would be worse that anything that had preceded it because extremist settlers were not only well armed but were prepared to use violence to prevent any change in their status. His concerns were not only about the West Bank, where Israel has continued to flout international appeals to halt settlement expansion, but about the broader community of messianic Jewish settlement supporters throughout the country. Taking his views at face value, he was identifying a real problem in which Israel has what could be described as a heavily armed “militia” at the core of its society – a potent enemy within. The Shin Bet chief believes there are hundreds of extremists whom Shin Bet and the military may have to deal with.
All signs are that Israel has created a problem it may find difficult to resolve. From a security point of view, it has a large section of its police force already in the West Bank and does not have the capacity to send more. Its armed forces – the IDF – have border duties and in the past have shown a reluctance to deal effectively with settlement-based extremists. One solution would be to issue detention orders for the most dangerous extremists on security lists. The Knesset, the country’s ruling body, has refused to contemplate such a move even though it is happy to have over 700 Palestinians presently being held on detention orders.
On the settlement issue, the EU adopts a position the U.S. refuses to publicly support that Israel has broken promises it made to the international community at the Middle East peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland in November 2007. At the Annapolis summit, held to discuss a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian crisis, Israel agreed to halt all settlement building. In fact the wording of an agreement the Israeli delegation signed was that it would “freeze all settlement activity.” In the view of the EU, in the wake of Annapolis Israel has done the opposite of what it promised. Some EU politicians have even accused Israel of speaking out of both sides of its mouth.
In Britain, major retailers have been encouraged by government to carefully examine all goods marked West Bank because many of them are being produced in Jewish settlements and then labeled West Bank as if to indicate they are of Palestinian origin. The major retail outlet, Marks & Spencers no longer sells what are labeled West Bank goods. The British government is also at the center of an EU plan to curb settler exports as a means to deny settlements the money they need to exist. EU concerns about settler products began after investigations revealed that foods produced in Jewish settlements in the West Bank were flooding into European markets marked as “Israeli origin” in order to get round EU tariffs. It was a tactic designed to exploit trade arrangements between Israel and the EU.
The EU move to stop settler produce reaching European markets could affect the flow of genuine Israeli products and is an international embarrassment for the State of Israel. It also shows that Europe believes Israel is at fault and points up the fact that, if the EU can take steps to squeeze the economy of West Bank settlements, Israel could make similar moves if it so desired. Israel has responded to the latest EU moves by declaring it will hold diplomatic talks with the UK about the matter yet Britain is only one country pursuing an anti-settlement policy. As a whole, EU states agree that Israel has been duplicitous in its dealings with the international community over its handling of the settlement issue, an issue that may ultimately prove violent and costly for Israel.
The EU has also made it clear “in the strongest possible terms” that it condemns settler violence against ordinary Palestinians. It believes it is the moral duty of the Israel authorities to abide by their promises to the international community to resolve the settlement issue. So far, settlers have resorted to verbal threats and stone throwing attacks when attempts have been made to curb their assaults on Palestinians. But they have also made it clear they are willing to spill Israeli blood if any attempt is made to move them off Palestinian land. Some say the settlement issue is one Israel has refused to honestly address and that it has made matters worse in the Middle East by allowing settlement expansion while assuring the rest of the world that it has been pursuing a policy to ‘freeze all settlement activity.”
Now, it may have to deal with an enemy within that could be as dangerous as any outside threat it faces.