Jewish extremist underground probed

JERUSALEM, Sept. 28 (UPI) -- Outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says security forces are investigating what he calls a new underground of extremist Jewish settlers.

Olmert made the comments Sunday while addressing the Israeli Cabinet in the wake of a pipe bombing of the home of Hebrew University political science Professor Ze'ev Sternhell, an outspoken critic of the Israeli settler movement, The Jerusalem Post reported.

Sternhell was slightly wounded late Wednesday night when assailants placed a small pipe bomb outside his Jerusalem home. Olmert said the incident has triggered an investigation into what he said appeared to be a new underground network of violent Jewish extremists.

"It is impossible to ignore the direct connection between the murder of (Peace Now demonstrator) Emil Grunzweig and the assassination of (former Israeli Prime Minister) Yithak Rabin with the attempt to harm Sternhell," Olmert reportedly said. "An evil spirit of extremism, hate, malice, violence, rebelliousness and the breaking of the law is passing over certain sectors of the Israeli public."

Upon his release from the hospital, Sternhell told the Post, "Democracy is a fragile form of government based on (societal) conventions. If these conventions are not protected they will collapse."