Settlers, Soldiers Tussle Over Dismantling of Synagogue

Angry Jewish settlers scuffled Tuesday with hundreds of Israeli troops who arrived to dismantle a makeshift wooden synagogue outside a settlement in the West Bank, providing a preview of the resistance Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s government is likely to face if it tries to uproot more illegal offshoots of settlements.

The dismantling of dozens of Jewish settlement outposts is required under the initial phase of the U.S.-backed “road map” -- a peace blueprint that has largely fallen into disuse in recent months amid a seeming deadlock between Israel and Palestinians.

Very few of these settlement offshoots have been removed, and in some cases -- after the Israeli army stepped in to haul away a few rusty trailers or tear down a rickety water tower -- the fledgling communities, which are tentacles of long-established West Bank settlements, merely migrated to other hilltops nearby.

Meanwhile, Israeli jets roared over Lebanon, striking what were described as strongholds of the militant group Hezbollah in the eastern Bekaa Valley -- the first such reprisal raids by Israel in more than five months. No casualties were reported.

The airstrikes in eastern Lebanon came even as Israeli military officials acknowledged that an army bulldozer clearing mines along the Israeli-Lebanese border a day earlier had strayed at least slightly into Lebanon before Hezbollah fighters fired on it, killing an Israeli soldier and wounding a second.

In the West Bank, the Israeli army’s move to dismantle a crudely built synagogue in the settlement outpost of West Tapuah, north of Jerusalem, came hours after a ruling by Israel’s Supreme Court that the government had the authority to remove it. A day earlier, the high court had issued an injunction against such a step.

Nine people -- six settlers and three Israeli soldiers -- suffered minor injuries in the shoving matches that broke out after about 300 troops moved in to carry out the removal order. One soldier was shoved off the roof of the hut-like structure, which was erected by followers of the late militant Rabbi Meir Kahane.

About 20 settlers were arrested, authorities said. One was a woman whom Israeli TV film footage showed repeatedly biting a soldier.

Many of about 150 settlers who defied the army represented the most extreme branches of the settler movement, which say they will never abide by territorial concessions by the Sharon government as part of a peace accord with the Palestinians.

“We’ll continue to build -- we’ll build another synagogue on another hill and another outpost,” settler activist Itamar Ben-Gevir told Israel Radio after the confrontation.

The army removed all religious artifacts from the site before dismantling the synagogue, a military spokesman said.

In unleashing its airpower over Lebanon, Israel appeared determined to send a message not only to the guerrillas of Hezbollah, but to the group’s patron.

Syrian President Bashar Assad’s recent calls for a renewal of negotiations have been coolly received by Israeli officials.

Although some of those close to Sharon -- and many politicians in Israel’s leftist opposition -- think no opportunity to make peace with a bitter enemy should be passed up, the Sharon camp holds that no serious negotiations are possible until and unless Syria withholds its support for Hezbollah, a radical Shiite Muslim group that is sworn to Israel’s destruction.

Israeli news reports said senior military officials weighed a warning strike at Syria itself, but decided to confine themselves to hitting at known Hezbollah bases in the Bekaa Valley.

Despite the acknowledgment that their mine-clearing bulldozer had intruded into Lebanese territory, Israeli officials said Hezbollah bore the responsibility for the violence for laying the explosives.

Hezbollah waged a long and ultimately successful guerrilla war against Israel’s occupation of a swath of southern Lebanon. Under then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak, Israel unilaterally withdrew in May 2000.

Israel’s southern border also was tense Tuesday. In the Gaza Strip, Palestinians charged that Israel’s destruction of about two dozen homes in Rafah along the border with Egypt had left hundreds of people homeless.

Israel described the demolitions as part of an effort to prevent Palestinians from using cross-border tunnels to smuggle weapons and ammunition.