Israeli mood turns more hostile

Condemned around the world for their army's often brutal assault on the Palestinian territories, Israelis are retreating into a resentful mistrust of outsiders that threatens only to deepen their country's international isolation.

The Israeli government's decision to block a United Nations team from investigating allegations of a massacre at the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank reflects an increasingly bitter feeling that a hostile world is bound to judge Israel unfairly.

"Events are taking us back into a very tribal atmosphere, a closed one where people feel we are fighting for the survival of the state of Israel," says author Tom Segev. "We are going back to a period that we had left behind."

"Israelis feel completely misperceived by the international community ... largely as a consequence of what is considered here to be appalling media coverage," adds David Horovitz, editor of the weekly Jerusalem Report.

Cowering in the face of repeated suicide bomb attacks that provoked Israel's invasion of Palestinian-ruled areas of the West Bank, ordinary Israelis have sought comfort in a sense of unity against a hostile world.

Encouraging that trend have been senior government officials, including Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who claimed recently that he was waging a war for the survival of the Jewish people.

Though few would go that far, "we are frightened and closed in on ourselves, and in an atmosphere like that it is natural to feel the whole world is against us," suggests Mr. Segev. "It easily brings up old memories" of the persecution Jews have suffered in the past.

The mood of defensiveness that has descended on the country can be seen in the media, say analysts here, as editors rally round. Two weeks ago, for example, a reporter for Army Radio was fired after interviewing an Israeli Arab novelist who had said he could not understand how Israelis could celebrate their Independence Day in light of what their army was doing to Palestinian towns.

The United Nations has borne the brunt of this new mood, especially since special UN envoy Terje Roed Larsen described the scene at Jenin after the Israeli withdrawal as "horrific beyond belief" and said the humanitarian situation there was "morally repugnant."

UN officials say they are routinely insulted by Israelis who recognize their marked cars, and have reported incidents in which Israeli soldiers have taken potshots at their vehicles.

But Israel is also smarting from criticism from Europe, where the European Parliament has called for trade sanctions against the Jewish state. Even the United States, Israel's staunchest ally, has pressured Mr. Sharon to pull his troops out of the West Bank and lift the siege of Yasser Arafat's headquarters in Ramallah.

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