Israel's far-right and its Jewish settlers have launched a campaign to block any peace agreement that caretaker Prime Minister Ehud Barak might negotiate, the Israeli press said Wednesday.
In outgoing US President Bill Clinton's proposals, Israel would pull out of the Gaza Strip and of 95 percent of the West Bank, and would hand over control of the Arab quarters and the mosque compound in east Jerusalem to the Palestinians.
"The fight for Eretz Israel (with biblical borders) has begun, for the man in charge, Barak, has gone mad", nationalist deputy Rehavam Zeevi was quoted as saying by the daily Maariv during a joint meeting Tuesday night of his National Union party and settlers.
Settlers representative Nadia Mattar said Barak was betraying the people of Israel, because "he who gives Jerusalem away to the enemy is a traitor."
Settler leader Moshe Feiglin said: "I hope Barak will be sentenced by a court one day, but he will be by history anyway, and he must be removed from wherever he can be harmful".
Another leading settler, Elyakim Haetzni, urged Israelis to imitate the "Yugoslavs when they toppled the tyrant (Slobodan) Milosevic".
Noam Arnon, the leader of the 400 extremist settlers who live in the West Bank Hebron enclave, said "the settlers were unanimously determined not to leave their homes alive".
According to Israeli newspapers, the far-right called for rebellion, the creation of an underground resistance movement and the biggest possible demonstration in front of Barak's office in Jerusalem -- JERUSALEM (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
