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In modest moves against the extremist settlers, the government ordered three-month detentions for five of them, but three managed to evade arrest. According to Police Minister Moshe Shahal, the two branches of Kahane's followers in Israel, Kach and Kahane Chai, have fewer than 100 active members each. "We know fairly well who belongs to these organizations," he said. But few of the wanted were cowed. In an interview on Israeli television, Baruch Marzel, one of the fugitive leaders of Kach, brazenly thumbed his nose at the government. "All the wanted are in contact with each other," he chortled. "This is a holiday."
Eighteen more militants have had their gun licenses revoked and their movements restricted. Even if the army succeeds in disarming them, they are not likely to go long without weapons, since all the Jewish settlements have well-stocked arsenals. Politically, Rabin finds it difficult to take guns away from many settlers in the face of Palestinian threats of revenge. If he did so and even one Israeli were to be killed as a result, Rabin's government could fall.
The response from the hard-line settlers has been defiance. Goldstein's burial site at Kiryat Arba is turning into a shrine, a destination for Jewish pilgrims. "Everyone who comes to visit wants to see the grave of Dr. Goldstein," said Zvi Katzover, the mayor of the settlement. "People appreciate what he has done." Goldstein's mother Miriam told interviewers that her son was a hero who had acted to head off an Arab attack. "He saved Jews," she said. "Look what responsibility he took on himself. For generations."
A preliminary investigation by Israeli security officials indicates that sloppy military procedures and negligence made it easier for Goldstein to carry out his atrocity. Only four soldiers and one officer were on guard at the mosque on Feb. 25, and though Goldstein was known as a man who had publicly threatened violence against Arabs, none of the sentries asked him why he was entering the building with a rifle. In a letter sent to Rabin last October, Islamic leaders complained that Goldstein had attacked the muezzin at the mosque and had poured "flammable materials" on its carpet.
When Goldstein entered the mosque and began firing, the troops outside did try to intervene, Israeli officials said, but they were blocked by worshippers who were either fleeing or trying to keep the soldiers out for fear they might intend to join the attack. The firing probably went on for two to three minutes. Investigators also determined that all the empty cartridges found inside matched Goldstein's rifle.
Not surprisingly, P.L.O. leaders dismissed Rabin's steps against the settlers as far too little, and some Israelis agreed. "If this week's decisions are a beginning," said Ehud Sprinzak, a political scientist at Jerusalem's Hebrew University, "they are a good move. But if it is going to be only one strike, it's totally unsatisfactory." At his headquarters in Tunis, Arafat insisted, "We are not asking for the moon."