Less than a year after Israeli soldiers began pulling out of West Bank cities, they’re back in force. Israeli armor–never before deployed against Palestinians–has turned the region into a patchwork of encircled Palestinian communities and isolated Jewish settlements. Tanks ring Nablus, snipers perch in the hills around Ramallah and military checkpoints have severed links between towns. The Netanyahu government defends the draconian security measures as a means for restoring calm in the area. But over the long term, it could trigger another round of bloodshed. ““People are saying we should prepare Molotov cocktails and other bombs,’’ said Palestinian Legislative Council member Husam Khader. ““They are talking about urban guerrilla warfare.''
Israel is hastily laying plans to ensure that its troops don’t become easy targets for Palestinian anger. Security officials estimate that limited Palestinian self-rule has allowed 40,000 firearms to be shipped to the territories. The worst of the bloodshed last month occurred in shoot-outs with Palestinian police. When talks between Palestinian and Israeli officials resume this week, Israel is expected to propose creating buffer zones between the two forces. That approach could work as a temporary measure in much of the West Bank, but it still won’t solve the problem in Hebron, where 450 defiant Jewish settlers vow to keep living among 25,000 Arabs.
If anything, the new violence has worsened the impasse. In Hebron, settlers point to Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus, where six Israeli soldiers died when an Israeli Army unit was besieged by Palestinian mobs. ““If they had taken Israeli troops out of Hebron, it would have been exactly the same except on a larger scale,’’ says settler spokesman David Wilder. ““We can’t allow that to happen.’’ Palestinian officials who govern Ramallah, the original flash point of last month’s unrest, say clinics and hospitals are running out of medical supplies. They accuse Israeli soldiers manning checkpoints of preventing most private-school students from attending class. ““People have lost hope that the peace process will move forward,’’ says Hebron Mayor Mustafa Natshe. ““There are tanks around this city, and they feel as if they are in a battle.’’ Without diplomacy and luck, that could become a reality.
