Hebron celebrated the first day of 1997 with Noam Friedman, an Israeli soldier, emptying his assault rifle at a crowd of Palestinian civilians, wounding nine people. Fortunately, no deaths occurred as fellow Israeli soldiers restrained Friedman while he was reloading his rifle for another round. The shooting, which strongly resonates with Baruch Goldstein's Ibrahimi mosque massacre of 29 Palestinians, vividly illustrates the vulnerability of the Palestinian civilians in Hebron. The attack comes against a backdrop of the growing influence of Jewish fanatics and ultranationalists in the Israeli body-politic. The Jewish settlers community in the West Bank and the Gaza strip is spearheading the movement with an often sympathetic right-wing government.

Two dangerous notions are quickly emerging. First is the insistence of the Likud government on practically re-negotiating the Oslo Accords--an agreement that was signed by the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, not on behalf of his Labor Party, but on behalf of the Israeli government. Such de facto renegation of signed treaties projects an image of Israel as a country which lacks credibility. Second is the idea that at the end of the 20th century, territorial claims can be made based on ancient religious texts. Imagine the havoc that would wreck Europe, or for that matter most of our world, if such a notion were adopted.

A Jewish settler justifying confiscation of Palestinian land explained: "It is simple, we are the children of God, the Palestinians are the servants of God!" It is against such fanaticism and racism that peace loving Palestinians and Israelis should work to secure a future based on mutual recognition of national rights. --Ramy M. Tadros '96