Aggressive and Necessary Move : Welcome action by Rabin government against radical organizations

The contest for control of the West Bank is not only between Israelis and Palestinians but between the government of Israel and those of its citizens who are committed by word and violent deed to resisting any change in the territorial status quo.

The government has now moved aggressively and necessarily against some of the most extreme opponents of its efforts to negotiate a peace based on territorial compromise and political rights for Palestinians. Applying laws that for decades have been used to try to suppress Palestinian militancy, the Cabinet has defined as terrorist two Jewish radical groups, Kach and Kahane Chai, and made membership in them and similar organizations illegal. About 400 individuals are now subject to prison terms if they continue their affiliation.

The government’s action follows the slaughter in a Hebron mosque of more than two dozen worshipers by Baruch Goldstein, a follower of the late Meir Kahane, the founder of Kach. That atrocity has threatened the peace talks. It has forced the Israeli government to confront earlier than it had expected the issue of how to deal with the most radical of the West Bank settlers.

The mosque massacre, while motivated by a fanatical hatred of Arabs, was also an open act of rebellion against Israel’s democratically elected government. The threat behind this mad and tragic challenge has been recognized throughout Israel. Yitzhak Shamir, the former prime minister whose right-wing Likud Party promised when in power that it would not give up one inch of the West Bank, immediately supported the government’s move to outlaw Kach and Kahane Chai.

The welcome action against the radical organizations is unlikely to secure good behavior from Israeli extremists; already the banned groups are threatening to continue their activities underground. The possibility of further outrages directed against Palestinians has to be considered high. The heavy responsibility on the government now is to move against Israeli terrorists with the same commitment and vigor that it uses against their Arab counterparts.