Text size this story is by related tags  For decades the
settlers have been stealing the helpless peasants' land and
Israeli governments have been paving the settlers' roads. Every
year during the olive harvest, Jewish malefactors raid olive
groves in the West Bank, and the long arms of the security
forces are too short to assist the Palestinians. In the rare
cases when they do catch the culprits, a charitable judge "takes
the circumstances into consideration."  But to set fire to a
mosque - and on the Festival of Lights? This time they have
really gone too far. Even the president cannot ignore such a
"sinful act," as he described it. By the way, this is the same
Shimon Peres who as defense minister had the honor of planting
the first tree in the West Bank settlement of Ofra, most of
whose homes are built on private Palestinian land.  If the
settlers would have set fire to yet another Palestinian wheat
field, the report of the event would have been at best shunted
to the nether regions of the news programs. T