The episode drew headlines after a gag order was lifted yesterday allowing the Israeli media to report the story.

 

Among the various charges, Teitel is said to have murdered two Palestinians in 1997, laid explosives near Arab towns in Israel and in the West Bank, targeted Israeli police, and attempted to murder Professor Ze'ev Sternhell last year because of Sternhell's ties with Peace Now. After the bombing of Sternhell's home, police found posters offering a bounty of NIS 1 million for killing Peace Now activists.

 

During a search of Teitel's home, Israeli authorities discovered rifles, handguns and explosives.

 

Teitel has reportedly confessed to most of these crimes, and said that he came to Israel in 1997 in order to attack Palestinians as revenge for suicide bombings.

 

Teitel is the second Jewish terrorist to emerge from the settlement outpost of Shvut Rachel. In 2005, Asher Weisgen, a one-time resident of the settlement, shot four Palestinian workers to death before committing suicide.

 

Shvut Rachel spokesperson Sh'maya Tiram tried to present the settlement as a "happy community" during a conversation with Haaretz yesterday. "Teitel and Weisgen, that's just bad luck. Our community is not like that," he said. 

 

The Yesha Council of West Bank settlers denounced Teitel. Council Chairman Danny Dayan said that every citizen with a conscience should be outraged by such acts.  (Haaretz, 11/1/09; Israel Radio, 11/2/09; Ma'ariv, 11/2/09)

 

Tough Questions: Following the news of the arrest of Yaakov Teitel, Israel's law-enforcement agencies are facing tough questions about their efforts to stop Jewish terrorists.

 

In Ma'ariv, Ofer Shelah wonders why it took so long to arrest this man: "He killed two Arabs as early as 1997 and then left Israel for three years, was arrested for violence while in the US, and was questioned back in 2000 in connection with one of the murders that he had committed three years earlier... Teitel went about completely free for nine years, during which time he committed more acts of violence, including a number of murder attempts, including of police, the murder of a 15 year-old boy and against Prof. Zeev Sternhell."

 

In Yedioth Ahronoth, Nahum Barnea suggests that Teitel's neighbors likely knew something about his activities. "Solitude is a relative concept in a small settlement such as Shvut Rahel," he writes. "People know minute details about their neighbors. They share the pew at synagogue with them, meet in the aisle in the grocery store, give one another a lift into the city and see each other's laundry hanging on the line... It is difficult to keep a secret in a place like that, and certainly so over the course of years. All the more so since Teitel did not act like a secret agent. He hung up posters on the street in public. He smuggled guns in his suitcase and shipment container. Those are the actions of a man who yearns for attention; those are the actions of a man who deep in his heart wants to be caught."

 

Another theme of criticism focuses on the efficiency of Israeli efforts to stop Palestinian terrorists in contrast with this case. Haaretz's Avi Issacharoff writes that Teitel's "big mistake, it seems, was targeting non-Arabs as well [as Palestinians]."

 

"Experience - and statistics - show that Israeli law enforcement is remarkably lax when it comes to tackling violence against Palestinians," Issacharoff continues. "Twelve years ago, Teitel confessed to killing two Arabs and then took a break from such activity. Sure, he was detained for questioning after the murder of shepherd Issa Mahamra, but he was released due to insufficient evidence. As with many other cases of murder and violence committed against Palestinians, the story of the shepherd from Yatta and the taxi driver from East Jerusalem disappeared into oblivion - until Teitel returned and attempted to harm Jews, bringing the wrath of public opinion, the Shin Bet security service and the Israel Police down on his head."

 

Issacharoff notes that the Israeli advocacy group Yesh Din "has found that 90% of police investigations of cases in which Israelis are suspected of committing offenses against Palestinians in the West Bank are left unsolved and are closed."

 

Not all the reactions are critical. Professor Sternhell - who was allegedly targeted by Teitel because of his affiliation with Peace Now - called yesterday "a great day for Israeli democracy." He also expressed his hope that Israel "deal with this terrorist as it deals with any terrorist, Jewish or Arab." (Ma'ariv, 11/2/09; Haaretz, 11/2/09; Yedioth Ahronoth, 11/2/09)

 

Lone Wolf? Even before news spread of the arrest of terrorist Yaakov Teitel, Israeli security figures were warning of an increase in violence by radical settlers against both IDF troops and against Palestinians.

 

"There are places in Judea and Samaria that are hothouses for weeds," a member of the IDF's General Staff commented two weeks ago, though he noted that most West Bank settlers are law-abiding.

 

The senior officer blamed individuals "formerly in positions of power, who are now unemployed and setting up all kinds of committees," for fanning the flames of radical sentiment among settlers.

 

Outgoing IDF Central Command chief, General Gadi Shamni also said last month that Israeli officials "must publicly denounce radical right elements in Judea and Samaria and exercise zero tolerance towards them."

 

General Shamni also lamented the settlers' efforts to impact security decisions through demonstrations and threats. "Unfortunately, we have witnessed more than once wrongful phenomena of applying pressure to commanders and their family members, in order to try to deter them from making correct decisions," he said.

 

Due to the threats from settlers, for the past two years General Shamni and the former West Bank Division commander, General Noam Tivon, traveled the West Bank with by bodyguards.  (Ma'ariv, 10/20/09; Haaretz, 10/20/09; Ynet, 10/21/09; Makor Rishon-Hatzofe, 10/22/09)

 

Barak Under Pressure: A series of statements made by Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak last week speak to the increasing pressure he is facing over the Labor party's presence in an Israeli government that has made little progress towards peace.

 

"I'm sitting in the government today and having an influence that's a thousand times greater than anyone else," Ma'ariv reported Barak saying. The Labor leader also suggested that he's changed the path Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is following. "Netanyahu didn't announce a Palestinian state out of the blue," Barak argued.

 

Despite his rationalizations, Barak seems to be slowly losing control of his party. Last month, Knesset Member Daniel Ben-Simon resigned his post as Labor Party Whip. Following this resignation, more than a third of the Labor Party Knesset faction has announced that it no longer supports Barak.  

 

Ben-Simon published an account of the meeting he held with Barak shortly before resigning. "I reminded him that we had yet to remove even a single outpost. What message does that send to the Palestinians? Why should they believe us while the hammers at the settlements and outposts don't stop pounding for a minute? Is this the way to help a U.S. president full of good intentions advance a genuine peace effort?"

 

"I was left without any comforting answers," Ben-Simon concluded.

 

Ben-Simon's resignation marks the fulfillment of a pledge he made following a tour of West Bank settlements and outposts with the Israeli Peace Now movement in August.  At the end of the tour Ben-Simon told reporters that Barak had promised him to remove the outposts. He then announced that "if 23 outposts are not removed by the end of the Knesset's summer recess [which ended in October], we will reconsider our path in the coalition." (Ma'ariv, 10/30/09; Haaretz, 10/20/09)

 

Israel Backs Obama on Iran Talks: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised on Friday the draft agreement to send most of Iran's enriched uranium to Russia and France, calling it "a positive first step" toward stopping Iran from making nuclear weapons. The deal was later rejected by Iran.

 

Speaking shortly before meeting with US President Barack Obama's Middle East envoy George Mitchell, Netanyahu added: "I also wanted to take this opportunity to express my appreciation for the president's ongoing efforts to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear military capability."

 

Netanyahu's praise marked a departure from statements made by his defense minister, Ehud Barak, earlier in the week. "Not only should enriched material be removed, but enrichment must be stopped in Iran," Barak had said, adding that diplomacy must be given only a "short and defined" time before "serious and immediate" sanctions are imposed on Iran.

 

Writing in Haaretz, Yossi Melman noted that the draft agreement signified that "Iran is, eventually, vulnerable to pressure, and is aware of the international community's demand and concerns over its nuclear program. The agreement distances Iran by at least 18 months from obtaining enriched uranium, which could then be further enriched to produce nuclear weapons... At the end of the day, any compromise agreement buys time for all involved. Iran gets relief from international pressures without stopping the uranium enrichment, and the West gets a time-out, while maintaining vigilance over the Tehran's nuclear program."

 

Netanyahu's praise for President Obama was echoed by Haaretz's editorial yesterday: "U.S. President Barack Obama, who was involved in negotiations on the draft agreement, even succeeded in forming a united front with Russia, which opposes expanding sanctions against Iran. Now [following Iranian rejection of this offer] the powers must decide whether to continue dialogue with the Islamic Republic despite its rejection of the proposal, or threaten it with new sanctions... At such a sensitive stage, it is important that Israel stand alongside the United States and its allies in the international community and back the efforts being led by Obama, rather than be seen as trying to sabotage diplomatic talks with Iran."

 

The editorial added that "Netanyahu acted correctly on Friday when, after meeting with U.S. Mideast envoy George Mitchell, he supported Obama's efforts to 'unite the international community' in confronting Iran's push toward a nuclear weapons capability. The prime minister praised the draft agreement (though rejected by Iran) as a positive first step, silencing Israeli officials who had criticized the proposal." (Reuters, 10/30/09; Yedioth Ahronoth, 11/1/09; Haaretz, 10/22 & 11/1/09)

 

Ignore Settlements at Our Own Peril: "Too many American Jewish groups have their heads in the sand when it comes to the damage the settlement project has done to Israel," writes Rabbi Eric Yoffie in Friday's Haaretz. "They embrace those on the American religious right who endorse settlement as a religious principle, without realizing that the influence of these groups is declining. They talk to each other or to themselves, but not to their own children on campus who must deal with this topic every day."

 

Yoffie - who heads the Union for Reform Judaism, America's largest Jewish organization - added that "too much of the American Jewish community responds to this problem by saying things that convince no one. Settlements are not the issue, they say. They may not be the only issue, but they are certainly a critical issue - and one that we ignore at our peril... I ask those on the right: If you fear that you will wake up in a few years and confront a radical Iranian state brandishing nuclear bombs, why do you not fear that you will wake up shortly to confront an emerging consensus - not only from our enemies but also from our friends - that a two-state solution must give way to a one-state solution? The latter possibility is no less likely and in some ways no less dangerous than the first." (Haaretz, 10/30/09)

 

Americans Back Israel Alliance; Diplomacy With Iran: A new poll of American public opinion released by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) shows strong support for the U.S.-Israel alliance and for Present Barack Obama's approach to peacemaking.

 

61% of Americans said that the U.S. should continue to support Israel even if that means a greater risk of terrorist attack. And indeed, 64% said that the U.S. was more likely to be targeted by terrorists because of its support for Israel.

 

Only 32% of Americans disapproved of Obama's handling of U.S. policy towards Israel and the Palestinian territories, while 46% approved.

 

49% of Americans believed that Obama administration's approach to peacemaking is generally balanced. 15% said that it favored the Palestinians, and 13% said it tilted toward Israel.

 

At the same time, there is an indication that the perception of Israel as a peace seeking country is slipping.

In a 2005 ADL poll, 74% of Americans said that they thought Israel was serious about wanting to reach a peace agreement. Today, that number stands at 64%.

 

One finding from the ADL's poll seemed at odds with another recent poll conducted by mainstream media organizations. ADL found that 54% of Americans would support American military action to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons. A recent Washington Post-ABC poll, however, found that only 33% of Americans would support a ground invasion and only 42% would support an American bombing effort.

 

The Washington Post-ABC poll found 82% support for diplomatic efforts to resolve the situation and 78% support for imposing economic sanctions against Iran. (ADL, 10/26/09; Washington Post, 10/19/09)