Binyamin Kahane, son of the slain anti-Arab Rabbi Meir Kahane, was killed along with his wife when Palestinian gunmen ambushed their van in the West Bank yesterday, Jewish settlers and medical officials said.
Three hours later, a senior West Bank official of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction, Thabet Thabet, was shot dead as he left his house in Tulkarm in what Palestinian officials called an Israeli assassination.
The killing of the Kahanes, in which five of their children were wounded, raised the specter of Jewish militant revenge attacks on Arabs just as Washington struggled to forge a peace framework after three months of Israeli-Palestinian violence.
"There is no turning of the other cheek in Judaism ... Judaism is revenge," said Noam Federman, a long-time friend of Binyamin Kahane and follower of his slain father. "There is no difference between one Arab or another. Every Arab wants to murder us."
Palestinian peace negotiator Saeb Erekat condemned the killing of Thabet.
"This gives us an indication of Israel's intentions towards peace. On the ground it uses the language of murder and aggression against our people," Erekat said.
Thabet, a dentist in his 40s, was director-general of control and inspection at the Palestinian Health Ministry.
"This is not linked to the killing of settler Kahane -- this is not a response to it -- because Thabet's assassination was planned and carried out after study and approval," a senior Fatah official said. "Israel will learn of our response soon."
The Kahane killing occurred a decade after an Egyptian-born US citizen assassinated Meir Kahane, leader of Israel's outlawed Kach movement, in New York. Kach advocated forcibly evicting Arabs from Israel, the West Bank and Gaza.
Binyamin Kahane, a settler who had been jailed himself by Israel for his activities as part of militant anti-Arab groups, was in his early 30s. He had led a group called Kahane Hai (Kahane Lives) formed after his father's death.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack north of the Palestinian city of Ramallah and near the Jewish settlement of Ofra. It also was not clear whether Kahane was targeted personally. Settlers said Arab gunmen had fired at other Israeli cars in the area recently.
On Saturday, Arafat's Fatah faction called for two weeks of escalation of a Palestinian uprising against Israeli soldiers and against Jews living in illegal settlements. Palestinian officials blamed Thabet's death on Israeli undercover units which they say have killed more than 20 activists from Fatah and other groups.
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