West Bank settler eviction offers warning, hope

Israeli police and soldiers encountered little resistance this month when they expelled some 200 extremists from a contested house in Hebron, near the traditional burial site of Abraham, the shared patriarch of Muslims and Jews.

But the shooting and arson attacks by settlers on Palestinians following the eviction were a reminder of how quickly the West Bank could plunge into violence, taking down any hopes of an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal.

Removing tens of thousands of Jews from the West Bank as part of a peace accord is becoming an increasingly difficult proposition as radicals resort to violence to keep land they believe God promised them.

An increasingly alienated minority of the 280,000 Jews who have settled in the West Bank since Israel captured it from Jordan in 1967 is taking matters into its own hands. They attack Palestinian civilians and Israeli troops every time the government acts against them, calling the operation "price tag"--meaning the toll they would exact in resisting evacuation.

Some settlers worry that the extreme violence--including hurling rocks and bleach and firing weapons--could backfire, making it easier for Israelis to see them as the enemy and stomach using force against them.

"I believe that if Israel hates us, then they'll give up Judea and Samaria," settler leader Pinchas Wallerstein said, using the biblical name for the West Bank.

Still, settlers have been pushed back before, most notably when Israel evicted 8,500 from the Gaza Strip in 2005.

Ephraim Sneh, former top military administrator of the West Bank, said settlers have used the threat of violence to compensate for weakened political influence.

"I believe that most Israelis understand that more than 90 percent of the West Bank should be evacuated. So in this sense, the political influence of the settlers is diminished," Sneh said.