Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert blamed an attack on an outspoken critic of Jewish settlement in the West Bank on what may be a newly formed Jewish underground and said the violence threatened the country's democracy.
``An evil wind of extremism, hatred, violence, malice, of unlawfulness, of lack of restraint, of disregard for the state has swept through certain sectors of the Israeli society and is threatening Israeli democracy,'' Olmert told his Cabinet today.
Police have not yet found the unknown assailants who threw a pipe bomb at Zeev Sternhall, who won the Israel Prize for political science this year, injuring him as he locked up his home on Sept. 24.
Violence between opposing Jewish political groups is not unknown in Israel. Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated in 1995 by Yigal Amir, who sought to stop him from handing over land for peace to the Palestinians. Peace activist Emil Grunzweig was killed in 1983 when a Jewish radical lobbed a grenade at demonstrators rallying against Israel's war in Lebanon.
Olmert drew a direct line between Rabin's assassination, Grunzweig's murder and the attack on Sternhall.
``Security forces have been instructed to act with the greatest speed to find those responsible, who appear to be part of a new Jewish underground, and bring them to court,'' Olmert said in his remarks, which were published on his Web site.
Leaflets Found
In police searches of the vicinity of Sternhall's home last week, leaflets were found offering a 1 million-shekel ($290,000) reward to anyone who murdered a member of Peace Now, an Israeli movement that monitors construction in West Bank Jewish settlements.
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