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Israeli settlers want more building after murders
ITAMAR, West Bank — Shocked members of this hard-line Jewish settlement, reeling from a devastating knife attack that killed five members of a family in their sleep, on Monday said the bloodshed only strengthens their resolve to stay put and urged the government to respond with a new wave of West Bank construction.
Much as I hate those who murder women and children, these particular settlers in Itamar are goading everyone, Israeli and Paleo alike. Either they'd better move back to a more defensible settlement or they'd better be a lot more careful.
Friday night’s attack has drawn new attention to Itamar, an isolated settlement deep inside the West Bank that has poor relations with its Arab neighbors. Settlers often refer to themselves as the first line of defense against Arab aggression and say Arab terrorism is trying to drive Jews out of land promised to them in the Bible.

“This is our land and it will always be the Jewish homeland,” said Moshe Goldschmidt, the New York-born head of the town council. “The future of Israel lies with its biblical assets. Itamar is the backbone ... No one will break our spirit.”

In response to the attack, Israel announced new plans to build up to 500 new homes in settlements located in major blocs next to Israel. Israel expects to keep these blocs, home to the vast majority of Israel’s 300,000 West Bank settlers, under any future peace deal.

In contrast, Itamar, an Orthodox Jewish community of some 1,000 residents south of the Palestinian city of Nablus, is not included in most Israeli plans. Itamar’s residents are commonly seen by other Israelis as fanatically religious, sometimes violent and dismissive of the state’s laws, professing to follow only the law of God.

Residents and settler leaders criticized the government’s latest building plan as grossly insufficient. “It is insult to us and an insult to the dead,” said David Haivri, a settler leader.

Itamar residents accuse the government of imposing an unofficial slowdown on construction to ease international criticism. They also bristle at occasional government attempts to remove some of the dozens of unauthorized hilltop settlement points.
Posted by: Steve White 2011-03-15
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=318224