Middle East Neighbor Against Neighbor

By Johanna McGeary/Jerusalem

, The Jewish settlement of Kedumim is only about a mile away from the Arab hamlet of Kafr Qaddum in the West Bank. Until now the residents of both rural villages lived and let live. Last week the Palestinian turmoil that has engulfed Israel and the occupied territories came even to this remote spot. As 15 or so Palestinian youths manned a rock barricade across the road leading to Kafr Qaddum, a familiar blue Volkswagen van braked to a halt. Inside were two well-known settlers from Kedumim, Shimon Kav, 41, and Yosef Ferber, 48. The Arab youths say they told the driver to go away. The settlers say they were pelted with stones, and in self-defense Kav sprayed bullets from an Uzi submachine gun. Abdul Basset Mahmoud Abdullah, 27, was killed instantly, and a second Arab was wounded.

The uprising entered its third month last week, with eleven more Palestinian deaths, more curfews, more burning tires and even a torched Israeli bus that was set afire by Arab rioters near the West Bank city of Hebron. But the episode in Kafr Qaddum underscored a new, worrisome development: the growing militancy among the 65,000 Jews who live in the land that they call Judea and Samaria but that is better known as the occupied West Bank. Touring Hebron last week, Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin denounced the settlers' actions as "destructive." Said Major General Amram Mitzna, regional commander for the West Bank: "This is a job for the army. If there are any people who don't think so, I say that taking the law into your own hands is very, very dangerous."

Two weeks ago militant Jews who live near Hebron and Ofra decided to strike back at the rioters. Settlers have raided Arab towns, vandalizing cars and houses. Armed with Uzis, pistols and billy clubs, ultrafanatic inhabitants of Kiryat Arba, home of Meir Kahane's extremist Kach movement, pile into cars and vans every day to patrol the roads leading to Hebron and Nablus. They claim that their purpose is to "supplement" the Israeli army; their real intent seems to be provocation and revenge. "The Palestinians are not afraid of the soldiers," insists Shmuel Ben-Yishai, a spokesman for the Kiryat Arba residents. "But they are afraid of us." Ben-Yishai, who directs his troop of nearly 100 gun-toting activists by walkie-talkie, rejects army demands that he stop. "The majority of the generals are small politicians," he scoffs. "Our sickness is trying to look good to the world."

Not all the settlers agree with Ben-Yishai. For the 30 Jewish families in $ tiny Dolev, near Ramallah, the Palestinian violence has meant that school buses must be escorted by the military and that most residents strap on a pistol before stepping into their cars. But when some residents of Dolev advocated fighting back, the majority opted to let the army protect them.

To the settlers, the uprising in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip is a test of their will to survive and rule. Yet the very presence of the settlers symbolizes a basic national dilemma. For years this small but fervent group -- representing only 2% of the country's total Jewish population -- has exercised an outsize influence on Israeli politics. Even many Israelis who question the settlers' tactics agree with them that the barren hilltops of ancient Judea and Samaria belong to Israel and should be kept forever.

That view is shared by Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, who two weeks ago responded coolly to a U.S. proposal for indirect talks with the Palestinians leading to local elections and then negotiations on the permanent status of the occupied territories. Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said he had "no substantive reservations" about the U.S. plan. Last week, after refusing to meet U.S. Special Envoy Richard Murphy jointly with Peres, Shamir said he might back limited "interim" autonomy for the Palestinians and asked Washington for "clarifications." But he widened his rift with Peres by accusing him of leaking details of their talks and "sabotaging" his peace efforts.

After two days of inconclusive talks, Murphy nonetheless declared himself "encouraged" by Arab and Israeli "enthusiasm" for his efforts. The State Department then announced that Secretary of State George Shultz would visit the area later this month in an effort to promote the Middle East peace process.

But in the end it is the Israelis themselves who must come to terms with what the settlers represent: an insistence on keeping every inch of the land that 1.4 million Palestinians also claim. Until the nation as a whole faces that dilemma, the turmoil is likely to go on.