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For Israeli Settlers, Resolve To Stay Means 'This is War'

For Israeli Settlers, Resolve To Stay Means 'This is War'
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February 27, 1988, Section 1, Page 4Buy Reprints
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The Israeli woman who identified herself as Aviva from Ofra seemed frail as a bird next to her friend with the Uzi submachine gun, but her words bore a message as blunt as the weapon's snout.

''We are going to stay for good'' in the occupied territories, she said as she joined 500 other Israelis today in a demonstration that seemed to show the passions that pull the nation's political center of gravity toward the right.

''There is only one way to restore peace,'' said another Israeli demonstrator, Avigdor Eskin, who supports the far-right Kach organization of Rabbi Meir Kahane, ''and that is the transfer of the Arab population to Arab countries.''

The demonstration today was held outside the office where Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir was meeting with Secretary of State George P. Shultz at the start of a new Middle East peace drive. It seemed designed to conjure hard emotions that Mr. Shultz could not ignore when considering the readiness of other Israelis, notably Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, to consider trading occupied land for peace.

To make sure, the organizers of the demonstration said, Mr. Shamir had given permission for members of the far-right Tehiya Party to demonstrate alongside his own supporters today. 'What You Win Is Yours'

''If there's a war and you win, then what you win is yours, according to all the rules of law,'' Aviva from Ofra said. Ofra is one of the oldest Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

Some of the men in the demonstration today seemed drawn from a mold stamped ''settler'' that other settlers dismiss as an unfair stereotype: men with guns and beards and children, and without evident sympathies for Arab adversaries. ''We don't give up any town or anything,'' one protester said, declining to give his name. ''Arabs have no rights in Israel.''

Yoel Adler, who described himself as a politician, not a settler, had a different contribution. He had brought a map depicting Israel in yellows and greens as an alligator, with Jerusalem as its heart and the occupied West Bank - referred to here as Judea and Samaria - as ''its soft belly.'' The belly, he said, could not be cast off, for to do so would bring the country's principal cities within striking range of neighbors deemed hostile.

''Nobody reasonable,'' he said, ''could imagine that Tel Aviv could be 15 kilometers from the border and Jerusalem on the border. Israel would then risk elimination.''

''Tell him that Palestine is in Jordan,'' an unidentified demonstrator shouted to Mr. Adler as he spoke to a reporter. ''Tell him this is the land of the Jews. Ask him if the Americans want to change the Middle East into another Iran.'' Harsher Tactics Urged

While some have condemned the tactics used by the authorities against Palestinian unrest in the occupied territories as too harsh, some of those who demonstrated today clearly felt the tactics were not harsh enough.

Yuval Neeman, chairman of the Tehiya Party, which has five seats in Parliament, said he believed Israel should contemplate tougher measures, like a ban on television cameras in areas of protest, and the issuing of ''shoot to kill'' orders to Israeli soldiers.

''This is a war,'' said Geula Cohen, a Tehiya legislator who has spent two weeks living in a tent across the road from Mr. Shamir's office to show her opposition to any softening of his negotiating line.

''If we had shot two, three, four in two or three places, they would know we are serious,'' she said, criticizing the authorities' handling of the Palestinian protest.

''They translate our moral weakness as a physical weakness, and we instead of weakening them are encouraging them,'' she said. ''This is a war, like every war, with Syria, with Egypt.''

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section 1, Page 4 of the National edition with the headline: For Israeli Settlers, Resolve To Stay Means 'This is War'. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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