A Tinderbox In Hebron

HEBRON, West Bank: The stabbing of an Israeli settler by a Palestinian in Hebron on Wednesday added fuel to an already raging inferno of debate over Israel's agreement to pull out its troops from the city. Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres is under increasing pressure from religious and right-wing parties to delay the troop withdrawal until after elections May 29. The parties hope the right- wing Likud party will win the election and back out of the pullout agreement with Palestinians. "Hebron is a tinderbox," Jerusalem bureau chief Lisa Beyer says. "It is a tense place even under the best of circumstances. You have radical, militant Jewish settlers protected by Israeli soldiers in the middle of a hostile Palestinian local community." The troop re-deployment was supposed to have started in the end of March, but February's string of suicide bombings has delayed the process. Peres has vowed to begin the withdrawal, agreed to in the Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement, before the election. PLO leader Yaser Arafat, however, said he would be happy with a gradual approach beginning after the election, sources told the Jersalem Post. Hebron is the last West Bank city under Israeli control, and the only place in theWest Bank where Jews and Arabs live in such close proximity. About 450 Jewish settlers live in six enclaves in the city of 94,000 Palestinians. Byer notes that Peres is feeling pressure on Hebron from all sides: "He has competing pulls on this. He is nervous to get out because it could lead to a disastrously violent situation. On the other hand, he wants to get out to show Israelis the peace process is moving ahead under his leadership. "Beyer says the pullout also could give Peres a strategic advantage over his opponent, Benjamin Netanyahu, whose Likud party is calling for the withdrawal to be canceled on security grounds. "Peres is daring the Likud, which is trying to sound moderate and pro-peace, into coming out in opposition of the pullout," Beyer says. "He wants to show the Likud as being extremist and against the peace process."