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The army argued that these orders applied only to situations in which lives were not endangered, not to murder. But testimony from other security guards at the Tomb showed that whatever the commanders intended, their orders were interpreted by many servicemen as absolute: no shooting at Jews. Since soldiers routinely open fire on Palestinians armed with nothing more than rocks, many Israelis were appalled by the double standard.
Army commanders said they never issued directives covering a case like Goldstein's because they never imagined a Jew would commit such a crime. But for months, the entire country watched fanatical settlers publicly threaten violence to sabotage the promised onset of Palestinian autonomy in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Officers of the Shin Bet, Israel's internal intelligence agency, told the commission that they had warned the military numerous times that radical settlers were likely to commit extreme acts.
The Tomb of the Patriarchs was an obvious tinderbox. The military governor of Hebron, Colonel Shalom Goldstein, testified that 25 "incidents of friction" between Jewish and Muslim worshippers had been recorded there in the past year. Yet security discipline was slack. On the morning of the massacre, five of the six men who were supposed to be guarding the inside of the mosque were absent. Three arrived late, which one of them acknowledged was a common occurrence.
While it seems a safe bet that the commission will ultimately find that Israeli negligence eased Goldstein's mission, the question is how high up it will assign blame. One possible victim is Lieut. General Ehud Barak, the military chief of staff who has been widely touted as Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's preferred successor. Says a high-ranking army officer: "Barak used to be considered a wunderkind. The blunders made in the Tomb have tarnished his reputation."
It is also conceivable that the commissioners will reach as high as the Defense Minister, who also happens to be Prime Minister Rabin. If so, he might be compelled to step down. Then Baruch Goldstein would have a hearty laugh from the grave. His aim was to destroy the Middle East peace process, and nothing would accomplish that better than the fall of Yitzhak Rabin.