Israeli Militants Warn of Civil War

Does anybody know how to say “Attack Fort Sumter” in Hebrew?

Militant settlers warned of violence and civil war after Israel’s parliament cleared away a major obstacle in front of a planned pullout from all 21 Gaza settlements and four in the West Bank this summer, handily defeating a call for a referendum.

The Knesset, Israel’s parliament, following Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s lead, rejected the plebiscite proposal yesterday by a vote of 72-39. Sharon had denounced the call for a referendum as a last-ditch effort by the settlers and their backers – many in his own Likud party – to scuttle the pullout.

Polls show about two-thirds of Israelis in favour of the withdrawal, roughly the same proportion as the Knesset vote. But the settlers, far from giving in, are simply redirecting their efforts to demonstrations and possible violence.

First, it should be pointed out that two-thirds favoring withdrawal does not mean one-third favors the settlements; rather, it only means that a portion of one-third are for the settlements. I’ll wager that the percentage of this portion that actually believes in the idea of an Israeli civil war over the settlement issue is minute. There’s always that little matter of the threat of outsiders surrounding the nation and hoping for its demise that will keep such matters from happening.

Thousands of settlers, many of them teenagers, demonstrated in front of the Knesset during the debate and vote. When the wide margin was announced, the settlers seemed momentarily deflated. Leaders called off the second day of the planned 36-hour vigil and said they would abandon their efforts to change the parliament’s mind.

But as their options narrowed, their rhetoric heated up.

“The Knesset has voted for violence, for civil war, for the next political assassination in Israel,” said Yehuda Glick, once the spokesman for a government ministry, referring to the 1995 murder of then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin by an extremist Jew opposed to Rabin’s compromises for peace.

Civil war? No. Another assassination by an Israeli radical? A legitimate threat.

Here’s hoping Israel doesn’t stray, just as the entire region is fumbling its way towards popular reform. Self-inflicted bleeding is not a good thing in shark-infested waters.