There's extremists on both sides, who don't want peace, they want victory over the other side.
There's a nicely illustrative story in today's Ha'aretz. Monday night was the annual pilgrimage to Baruch Goldsteins tomb. Goldstein is the man who walked in to a mosque in 1994, and shot dead 29 Palestinians at prayer.
The "pilgrims" dressed one of their number up in an Ariel Sharon mask, and staged a mock execution. They don't like him because he isn't right wing enough for him.
Goldstein's grave was quite a shrine in the Meir Kahane park in Kiryat Arba, named after the Rabbi who spent time in prison in America and Israel for terrorism, and who advocated ethnically cleansing all Arabs from Israel and the occupied territories. Kahane was banned from standing in Israeli elections because of his racism, and Goldstein committed the worst terrorist act after the signing of the Oslo accords. They are both honoured amongst the residents of Kiryat Arba, the main Jewish settlement adjoining Hebron.
Why do you think the Hebron settlers are there? to increase Israeli security? The IDF has lost dozens of men, and devotes thousands of troops to protecting them.
They are there to take the land away from the Arabs. It's as simple as that, and they make no pretence about it. After Goldstein murdered the Arabs, the IDF imposed a 30 day curfew on Hebron, and closed an Arab market. The Arab market has since been taken over by more settlers, even though the shops are still legally owned by Arabs, who are no longer allowed access to their property. And now another area adjacent to the market has been declared off limits to Arabs, to provide security for the settlers now living in the market.
Another article in today's Ha'aretz, on the army protection for illegal outposts in the territories:
"One of the controversial duties is protecting the illegal outposts in the territories. A Peace Now report shows there are 107 such outposts. Let's assume the protection of such an outpost - including a perimeter defense and protection of the roads and checkpoints leading to it - employs no more than 30 soldiers (recently, there were reports that Shirat Hayam, an outpost in the heart of Gaza, has 40 soldiers protecting it, while other reports say between 10 and several dozen soldiers protect each outpost). The total number of reserve days required for the mission every year is 1,171,650 - 107 outposts x 30 soldiers x 365 days.
Even if we assume there's a certain degree of overlap on the access roads and checkpoints leading to the various outposts, and there are security installations in the area that would, in any case, be guarded, this is nonetheless hundreds of thousands of days of employment for soldiers around what are illegal outposts.
This number does not include the massive security for illegal outposts that were retroactively legitimized, like the Jewish enclave in Hebron, which requires thousands of soldiers to protect it, or other outposts that were turned into legal settlements.
It doesn't matter if the guards are reservists or conscripts, since together they make up the activities of the army. What's important is the number of days required to protect an illegal activity and the influence on the allocation of the army's resources. Two principles should be examined in this context: the first touches on the mere fact that people who are breaking the law are winning the state's protection. The second is how the army uses soldiers for the purpose of an activity that is under public dispute.
The first question is simple, which makes the lack of public debate about it even more puzzling. Would it cross anyone's mind that a gang of burglars would call up the police and ask it to protect them during a robbery because the area where the crime is taking place is considered dangerous? Would anyone accept a criminal's request for protection while they are transferring drugs, weapons or money to another gang, a dangerous activity in its own right? The answer, of course, is no. In a normal country, criminals and security forces are on opposite sides of the fence and do not coordinate their activities and cooperate with each other.
Thus Israel has been turned into the only country in the world where the criminals don't offer protection, but demand it - and get it. The army provides the protection to the illegal outposts as a state organization meant to protect the lives of its citizenry, avoiding all ideological activity. In the current reality, it's reasonable to assume the army would not allow its soldiers to take part in seminars about the illegal outposts or call on soldiers to settle in them, because that would be considered controversial. But, at the same time, under orders from the government, it sends soldiers to protect those outposts even if it means endangering lives. The government thus requires the army to be an accomplice to an ideological crime. "
