Jeffrey Goldberg interviews Shmuel Rosner in The Atlantic:
Jeffrey Goldberg: Is what we’re seeing in Hebron a continuation of the same sort of settler struggle, or does it represent something new in the evolution of the movement?
Shmuel Rosner: It is not exactly new, but yet another proof that the settlement movement is crumbling and that the fear some people shared–that the state of Israel will not be able to deal with the possible need to evacuate settlements–has no basis in reality.
What happened in Hebron and is happening now in the West Bank is, of course, very troubling, but it is also somewhat encouraging. The Israeli government had vowed to evacuate a house in Hebron and, once the order was given, it unceremoniously did it within an hour or so. The radical elements threatening to prevent such evacuation proved to be a paper tiger, and the disgusting acts of “revenge” they were perpetrating after the fact are signs of frustration, not strength. Those radicals are not only alienated from Israel’s larger society, they are also at odds with the settlement movement itself.
Of course, this does not mean that Jewish radicals are not a cause for concern. As we’ve learned time and again, events in this region can be easily ignited by acts of alienated fundamentalists. So I think the real question for now–a question to which one can receive more than one answer–is about the real number of people aligning themselves with those fringe elements of the Jewish far-right. Surely, it is more than a bunch of kids. Yet, again, the house in Hebron was not “defended” by thousands, but rather by hundreds. And contrary to what these people presumably believe, the lines they were crossing will not make the state more reluctant to “deal” with them, but rather more determined.
Read the full interview here.