The Accidental Empire: Israel and the Birth of the Settlements, 1967-1977 (67 page)

93.
Shafat, 191, 202. Shafat says Gush Emunim deliberately cultivated fear of civil war in case of evacuation, while claiming the movement did not actually intend to engage in violence.

94.
Ma’ariv,
Dec. 5, 1975.

95.
Original text in MEI-MR, unnumbered file of press releases.

96.
MEI-MR, unnumbered file, handwritten text designated for distribution Tevet 3 (Dec. 7, 1975); cf. Yosef Walter, “Kol Haderakhim…,” in which settler leaders make the same threat; Shafat, 202; Demant, 398, quotes Porat that “as a man defends his home” was the public line, and “Everyone could understand what he wanted.”

97.
Ma’ariv,
Dec. 7, 1975. No minutes would have been taken at a meeting on the Sabbath including Orthodox Jews.

98.
Ma’ariv,
Dec. 7, 1975; Shafat, 197.

99.
Ma’ariv,
Dec. 7, 1975; Shvut, frontispiece.

100.
Haim Gouri, “Yom Valailah Bashomron,”
Yediot Aharonot
, Dec. 12, 1975.

101.
Gouri, interview. In columns relatively soon after the Sebastia confrontation, Gouri defended the Allon plan, e.g., Haim Gouri, “Bamarbolet,”
Davar,
June 10, 1977, 2.

102.
Gouri, “Yom Valailah.”

103.
Ibid.

104.
Ibid.; Gouri, interview.

105.
Genesis 37:16.

106.
Gouri, “Yom Valailah.”

107.
A number of conflicting—and sometimes internally inconsistent—accounts have been published on the dénouement of the Sebastia confrontation. I have treated the small number of contemporary notes by participants as primary sources, followed by contemporary reportage and memos written soon after. Even early sources are affected by the desire of key figures to defend their roles or take credit for perceived achievements. In using memoirs, my own interviews with participants, and other work depending on oral testimony, I have sought verification of details by independent sources. Demant includes valuable interview material with several figures who were no longer alive at the time of my research. Another valuable source is Reuven Pedatzur, “Het Kaddum,”
Ha’aretz
, Oct. 3, 1990, B2. The brief account in Peres’s memoirs (Peres, 169–70) does not jibe with documentary evidence, and the chronology in Golan,
Shimon Peres
, 173–74, is distorted, unfortunately making both accounts questionable. More details of the events of Dec. 7–8, 1975, may emerge if and when currently classified material is released.

108.
Yediot Aharonot
, Dec. 8, 1975; Demant, 393.

109.
Davar,
Dec. 10, 1975. Peres also claimed, in the meeting of the Alignment Knesset delegation, that if settlers offered to move to a nearby army base, he had been authorized to tell them that their proposal would be discussed. It is possible he added this possibility to the committee of four’s decisions after the fact, in order to provide a justification for the senior ministers’ actions.

110.
Yediot Aharonot
, Dec. 8, 1975; Demant, 393.

111.
Yediot Aharonot
,
Ma’ariv,
Dec. 8, 1975.

112.
Porat, interview; Gouri, interview.

113.
Demant, 394; Gouri, interview.

114.
Haim Gouri, “Hakera,”
Davar,
Dec. 8, 1975; Pedatzur, “Het Kaddum”; Demant, 395–96; Gouri, interview;
Ma’ariv,
Dec. 8, 1975, 1. Gouri’s first account in
Davar
does not specify a number of settlers or the base in which they would stay.

115.
Gouri, interview; Pedatzur, “Het Kaddum”;
Ma’ariv, Yediot Aharonot,
Dec. 8, 1975; Demant, 398.

116.
Pedatzur, “Het Kaddum”; Demant, 399;
Ma’ariv
, Dec. 8, 1975, 1.

117.
YTA 15Galili/95/70/50.

118.
Rabin, 550.

119.
Demant, 400–401. Pedatzur, “Het Kaddum,” quotes Gur confirming the conversation took place, while claiming Rabin was also hesitant to act. Demant cites Galili’s top aide Arnan Azaryahu as saying Peres also threatened to resign rather than “order shooting.”

120.
Gouri, interview; Haim Gouri, “Be’od Hodshayim-Shloshah,”
Davar,
Dec. 9, 1975; Pedatzur, “Het Kaddum.”
Ma’ariv,
Dec. 8, 1975, reported that in a ministerial consultation earlier in the day, Galili spoke harshly against Gush Emunim, saying, “They won’t run this country.”

121.
Haim Gouri, personal papers. Emphasis in the original.

122.
YTA 15Galili/2/2/21. Except for the last line, the text is identical with the handwritten text in Gouri’s possession.

123.
Another note Gouri received that evening from Galili states, “I’ve spoken with Yitzhak.” Haim Gouri, personal papers. Cf. Pedatzur, “Het Kaddum,” on ministerial reactions, and Demant, 403. Rabin’s note of the next day to the cabinet members, YTA 15Galili/95/7/50, lends weight to the claim they lacked advance knowledge. However, in a note to Gouri dated May 2, 1976, summarizing the affair, Galili wrote that he and Gouri had spoken while the cabinet was still meeting.

124.
Gouri, “Yom Valailah”; Gouri, interview.

125.
Both have described the discussion in these terms. Demant, 405–6; Shvut, 55–56; Porat, interview.

126.
Gouri, “Be’od Hodshayim-Shloshah”; Pedatzur, “Het Kaddum”; Gouri, interview.

127.
Demant, 408.

128.
Haim Gouri, private papers. A copy of the same document appears in Shvut, 56. Peres’s former aide Moshe Netzer confirmed to me that the writing was Peres’s. The same wording appears in Rabin’s notice to ministers of the agreement, YTA 15Galili/95/7/50, from the same day.

129.
Shafat, 216; Demant, 410. Rabin’s note to cabinet ministers, YTA 15Galili/95/7/50, says Peres “was in constant contact with me” during the negotiations.

130.
Shvut, 56.

131.
YTA 15Galili/95/7/50.

132.
“Rabin Iyem Lehitpater Bediyun So’er Shel Si’at Hama’arakh al Sebastia,”
Davar,
Dec. 10, 1975.

133.
Rabin, 249–50.

134.
Ma’ariv, Al Hamishmar,
Dec. 10, 1975.

12. The Fall of the House of Labor

1.
Gush Emunim,
Adar Bet 5736 (Mar.–Apr. 1976), 6; Guga Kogen, “Kaddum. Eikh Bonim Uvdah,”
Hotam—Al Hamishmar,
Feb. 20, 1976.

2.
William Drummond, “Anti-Israeli Outbreak Spreads on West Bank,”
Washington Post,
Mar. 12, 1976, A22.

3.
Ma’oz, 124–26; Thomas W. Lippman, “Settlers, Funeral Raise West Bank Tensions,”
Washington Post,
Mar. 24, 1976, A10;
Gush Emunim—Daf Kesher,
Shvat 5736 (Jan.–Feb. 1976), lists the population of Kiryat Arba as 1,444, including students at a
hesder
yeshivah.

4.
Mordechai Artzieli, “Ma Era Behevron,”
Ha’aretz,
Mar. 24, 1976, 11.

5.
Hatzofeh,
Mar. 18, 1976;
Ha’aretz,
Mar. 19–24, 1976; Lippman, “Settlers, Funeral.”

6.
Ha’aretz,
Mar. 24, 1975; Yehudah Litani, “Kaddum: Shanah Aharei,”
Ha’aretz
, Dec. 8, 1976.

7.
“Excerpts From Scranton’s U.N. Speech,”
New York Times
, Mar. 25, 1976, 4.

8.
See page 143.

9.
Paul Hofmann, “U.S. Veto Blocks a U.N. Resolution Criticizing Israel,”
New York Times,
Mar. 26, 1976, 1; Quandt, 246.

10.
Ad. MS 76:48.

11.
Ad. MS 76:3.

12.
Gush Emunim,
Adar Bet 5736 (Mar.–Apr. 1976), 14.

13.
Yosef Walter, “Menachem Felix Shalaf Te’udat Zehut…,”
Ma’ariv,
Apr. 27, 1976.

14.
Netzer, 294.

15.
Terence Smith, “120 Israelis in the West Bank Dig In to Hold New Settlement,”
New York Times,
Apr. 3, 1976. Visiting several weeks before Walter (n. 10), Smith gave a lower number of settlers.

16.
Walter, “Menachem Felix Shalaf Te’udat Zehut.”

17.
DC 47, 63.

18.
Davar
, Apr. 30, 1976.

19.
Ma’ariv,
May 9, 1976; Latif Dori, interview.

20.
The sources for the May 9, 1976, cabinet meeting are Admoni’s transcript at Ad. MS 76:7–39, and Reuven Pedatzur, “Vekaddum Le’olam Tisha’er,”
Ha’aretz
, Oct. 10, 1990. The former is apparently Admoni’s own notes, and may not be word for word. There are variations in official settlement figures. In a secret memo of Aug. 19, 1976, YTA 15Galili/2/3/74, Galili’s office listed 68.

21.
Ad. MS 76:7–16

22.
Ad. MS 76:20. Ofer said 7,000 units had been completed or were under construction in settlements in occupied territory and within the Green Line, 6,000 of them in occupied territory. Out of the 7,000 total, 3,000 were still being built. He did not specify how many of those under construction were over the Green Line.

23.
Ad. MS 76:29–30.

24.
Ad. MS 76:21–22.

25.
Ad. MS 76:23–24.

26.
Ad. MS 76:33–34.

27.
Ad. MS 76:24–27; Pedatzur, “Kaddum Le’olam.” Likud leader Menachem Begin publicly spoke of taking power with a coalition of 62 Knesset members if Peres’s Rafi faction left Labor and joined with the Likud and National Religious Party. Amnon Rubinstein, “Kaddum, Brooklyn, Ushar Ti’unav Hamuzarim Shel Sar Habitahon,
Ha’aretz
,” May 15, 1976.

28.
Ad. MS 76:38.

29.
YTA 15Galili/4/3/32.

30.
Ma’ariv
, May 11, 1976.

31.
YTA 15Galili/4/3/32, May 31, 1976.

32.
YTA 15Galili/4/10/49, June 15, 1976. Parentheses in the original.

33.
YTA 15Galili/4/10/52, July 1, 1976.

34.
Admoni,
Asor
, 178.

35.
Ad. MS 76:44–45.

36.
Litani, “Kaddum: Shanah Aharei”; Aryeh Avneri, “Sarei Mapam Lerabin: Matai Tefuneh Kaddum?”
Yediot Ahronot,
July 27, 1976; “Yadin: Hitnahalut Bekaddum—Helek Meha’anarkhia,” Al Hamishmar, Aug. 6, 1976; Penniman, 151.

37.
MEI-MR, unnumbered file, report on Ofrah, early 1976, sets Iyar 9, 5736, the first anniversary of Ofrah on the Hebrew calendar (May 9, 1976), as target date for completing the fence. Shani, “Mekimei Hagader,” says the work began around September 1974 and took “nearly two years.”

38.
OA 4, “Ofrah,” undated report, early to mid 1976, signed “Pinhas Wallerstein.”

39.
OA 6/5 “Du’ah Tzevet Hahityashvut Shel Gush Emunim” (Gush Emunim settlement team report), autumn 1975, 12, identifies Ofrah as a community settlement (
yishuv kehilati
), before other Gush Emunim settlements were established. The same document (7–11) introduces the community settlement concept. David Newman and Leviah Applebaum, “Hakfar Vehayishuv Hakehilati Mera’ayon Limtzi’ut,” in Shvut, 157–58, states that the concept was developed that year by planner Uzi Gdor, in part to define Alon Shvut. According to DC 74, “Du’ah Hatzevet Lekiddum Hahityashvut Shel Gush Emunim” (Gush Emunim settlement team report), Sivan 5735 (May–June 1975), Gdor was working with Gush Emunim by spring 1975. Hemdat Shani, “Ofrah Agush—Hatargum Hamale,”
Et Ofrah,
Iyar 18, 5761 (May 11, 2001), notes that Gdor was also consulting directly with Ofrah. Gdor’s concept provided a definition for Ofrah and for Alon Shvut, and a direction for Gush Emunim.

40.
OA 6/5 “Du’ah Tzevet Hahityashvut Shel Gush Emunim” (Gush Emunim settlement team report), autumn 1975, 7–11.

41.
Litani, “Kaddum: Shanah Aharei.”

42.
Penniman, 138–43, 150–54, 178–79, 187; Jerusalem Report,
Shalom Friend
, 92–95; William E. Farrell, “Rabin’s Position Is Precarious…,”
New York Times,
Nov. 21, 1976, 4; Sprinzak, 93–119, on Labor’s patronage system.