Settlers

IN AMERICA, Israel's running battle with suicide bombers and the resulting death toll usually dominate the news from the Jewish state. Who could not be transfixed by photos of the charred skeleton of a commuter bus or the bravery of young soldiers who sacrifice themselves to stop a terrorist? But these events, as horrific as they may be, can deflect attention from other events that undermine prospects for peace in the Mideast. For two days last week, Israeli soldiers and police suffered indignation and humiliation at the hands of Jewish settlers as they tried to remove about 20 illegal outposts on West Bank hilltops.

It's a sun-splashed morning in rolling southern Anne Arundel County, and a cluster of old oaks and maples make a fine canopy for the 25 gentlemen gathered at the cottage they see as a shrine. Some wear seersucker blazers and boating shoes. Many sport neckties with their club's logo - a British flag and an American flag, their staffs crossed. Their laughter echoes off the clubhouse, a bungalow built 34 years before the signing of the Declaration of Independence. "We have an ancient tradition - it never rains on meeting day at the Old South River Club," says Chris Wilson, a longtime member of the tiny Harwood society that calls itself "the oldest continuously operating social club in the English-speaking world.

A century ago, the Page family settled in Catonsville, founded a church and operated the neighborhood grocery out of the front rooms of a home on Winters Lane. Still, the family's 99-year-old matriarch, Eva Page Brooks - whose living room was once that family store - could not trace its history back more than a few generations. But thanks to the Internet and a DNA sample, the Catonsville clan has become the first black family - and the first Baltimoreans - to verify their descent from two 17th- and 18th-century settlers of Virginia and become members of a group dedicated to their legacy, the Page-Nelson Society.

The second week of Fox's "Terra Nova" took a page from Alfred Hitchcock's book, with our band of time-travelling settlers under attack from swarms of reptilian-like birds of prey in a refreshing, quick-paced hour Monday night. An hour seems a more manageable chunk of time for this adventure - the two-hour premiere was a bit much for one go, and this week's episode was decidedly more enjoyable than the last. Maybe it was the passing mention that Terra Nova, like any self-respecting settlement of pioneers, has a bar. This time, the establishment of Terra Nova is under siege from massive flocks of miniature pterodactyls - a species previously unknown in the region and time in which the Shannon family finds themselves.

JERICHO, West Bank -- Vowing to ignore the "terrorist" Palestinian policemen, a group of right-wing Jews armed with submachine guns traveled to an ancient Jericho synagogue site to pray yesterday.They were allowed to pass by the new Palestinian police, who took over control of Jericho on Friday. After a few hours, the Jews left at the request of the Israeli military, but they said they would return next week.The incident ended peacefully, but it was an indication of the problems that lay ahead in executing an agreement that promises Palestinians control but permits armed Israelis to ignore that control.

JERUSALEM -- The Israeli army announced last night that it was sealing off Jewish settlements in the West Bank town of Hebron, where hundreds of settlers and their supporters have rioted for the past several days to protest a government order to vacate an illegal Jewish enclave. The move represents a sharp escalation of the army's confrontation with the protesters and places acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on a collision course with militant settlers. Until now, their fury had been aimed primarily at Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who remained in grave condition after a massive cerebral hemorrhage Jan. 4. In recent days, masked settler youths have confronted Israeli troops in Hebron's old town, throwing stones and paint bombs, scuffling, cursing and setting fires.

JERUSALEM - Israeli Cabinet ministers yesterday approved payment of advances to Jewish settlers willing to leave their homes in the Gaza Strip and in four West Bank settlements, setting in motion the first practical steps in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's withdrawal plan. Sharon's Security Cabinet approved outlines of a compensation package that includes incentives for settlers willing to leave voluntarily and advances for settlers ready to move now, officials said. Settlers could receive about $200,000 to $350,000 per family, depending on the size of their home, how long they had lived in their settlement and where they agreed to move, according to the outline.

JERUSALEM - Israel's defense minister urged yesterday that this summer's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip be delayed by three weeks in deference to a solemn Jewish religious commemoration. The recommendation by Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz all but guaranteed a postponement of Israel's pullout of settlers and soldiers from the Mediterranean enclave, pushing the start to mid-August. The move to delay the evacuation of 21 settlements in Gaza and four smaller ones in the northern West Bank demonstrated the continuing political clout of observant Jews, who are disproportionately represented among the settlers who are to be uprooted.

MA'ON FARM, West Bank -- Splitting with the old guard of established Jewish settlements, a young generation of settlers is throwing a wrench into Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak's plans to bring an orderly end to the era of uncontrolled, unapproved hilltop encampments in the West Bank.Yesterday, a group called Dor Hahemshech, meaning the Next or Continuing Generation, blocked the path of a truck sent to remove a large metal container that settlers had placed to stake a claim to a piece of ground called Hill 804 east of Hebron.

YITZHAR, West Bank - A pipe bomb that exploded late last night outside the Jerusalem home of Zeev Sternhell, a Hebrew University professor, left him slightly wounded and created only a minor stir in a nation that routinely experiences violence on a much larger scale. But Sternhell was noted for his impassioned criticism of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, once suggesting that Palestinians "would be wise to concentrate their struggle against the settlements." And the authorities found fliers near his home offering nearly $300,000 to anyone who kills a member of Peace Now, a left-wing Israeli advocacy group, leading them to suspect that militant Israeli settlers or their supporters were behind the attack.

A century ago, the Page family settled in Catonsville, founded a church and operated the neighborhood grocery out of the front rooms of a home on Winters Lane. Still, the family's 99-year-old matriarch, Eva Page Brooks - whose living room was once that family store - could not trace its history back more than a few generations. But thanks to the Internet and a DNA sample, the Catonsville clan has become the first black family - and the first Baltimoreans - to verify their descent from two 17th- and 18th-century settlers of Virginia and become members of a group dedicated to their legacy, the Page-Nelson Society.

Bryant Bunch, who came from Prince George's County to attend college here at the far end of the Maryland panhandle, first saw the sign on Interstate 68 while traveling with a carload of friends a few years back. He remembers their reaction: Does that say what we think it says? Maxine Broadwater, born and raised on a farm outside Grantsville, and the town's librarian for three decades, recalls the first time she ever gave the name a second thought. It was the early 1990s, and people passing through had stopped at her library to ask about it. Her thought: Why would that bother anybody?

When white settlers arrived in what is now Virginia, bringing with them their strange and sometimes warlike ways, the Powhatan peoples of the region had some decisions to make. The settlers had fired on Powhatans almost the moment they landed in 1607. Their leaders inadvertently insulted Chief Powhatan by asking him to kneel to accept a ceremonial crown. John Smith, president of the Jamestown colony, sent soldiers to drive many Powhatans from their homes. "The clan mothers got together, talked and prayed: How will we handle this problem with the white settlers?"

YITZHAR, West Bank - A pipe bomb that exploded late last night outside the Jerusalem home of Zeev Sternhell, a Hebrew University professor, left him slightly wounded and created only a minor stir in a nation that routinely experiences violence on a much larger scale. But Sternhell was noted for his impassioned criticism of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, once suggesting that Palestinians "would be wise to concentrate their struggle against the settlements." And the authorities found fliers near his home offering nearly $300,000 to anyone who kills a member of Peace Now, a left-wing Israeli advocacy group, leading them to suspect that militant Israeli settlers or their supporters were behind the attack.

JERUSALEM -- Israeli police with sledgehammers and chain saws broke into a fortified building in the West Bank city of Hebron yesterday and dragged out more than 200 spitting, stone-throwing Jewish settlers who had defied a court order to leave. The showdown in the center of the city sparked debate in Israel over the source of authority for its army. Seven army officers and soldiers were disciplined Monday for refusing, on religious grounds and with rabbinical blessing, to serve as backup for the police operation.

JERUSALEM -- Israel has approved construction of new housing for Jewish settlers in the West Bank, officials said yesterday, drawing protests from Palestinian leaders and Israeli peace activists who said the decision violates a three-year-old pledge to the United States to freeze settlement activity. Israeli officials insisted that there was no such breach, saying the site of the new homes for 100 families in the northern Jordan valley had been a Jewish settlement since 1981. But Palestinian leaders said the announcement, coming just three days after Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas launched an effort to revive peace talks, undermined the cooperative spirit of the weekend meeting.

HAVAT GILAD, West Bank - The showdown over this desolate, sand-swept hilltop began over the weekend when Israeli soldiers and police fought for two days with Jewish settlers who refused orders to abandon the illegal settlement. Tuesday, the settlers returned, pounded tent stakes into the soft ground and began to rebuild tin shacks that had been flattened by the army. They vowed to return again and again, no matter how many times they are evicted. The stand by this band of devout settlers in the far reaches of the northern West Bank has erupted into a bruising political battle in Israel that threatens to topple the coalition government and has stirred a vitriolic debate bordering on the profane.

JERUSALEM -- Shlomo Katan, a right-wing mayor of a Jewish settlement in the West Bank, drove a quarter-mile this week to visit the neighboring Arab city of Qalqilya for the first time in six years.He met Qalqilya's mayor. They hugged. They swapped phone numbers. "It was lovely," said Mr. Katan.Such gestures -- small as they may seem -- are coming from the Israeli right wing more frequently. A growing number of Jewish settlers are saying they must acknowledge Palestinian authority in the West Bank, which they had fought so ardently against.

The Weight of Smoke: A Novel of the Jamestown Colony George Robert Minkoff McPherson & Company / 392 pages / $24.95 One of the most compelling stories of early Colonial American history is that of the establishment of the Jamestown Colony. On May 14, 1607, the Virginia Company explorers, funded by a charter by King James I of England, landed on Jamestown Island. They were there to establish an English colony on the banks of the James River, in what is now Virginia, and settle the New World - and mine its untold riches - for England.

White sails unfurled, a wooden replica of a 17th-century ship glided past rusted factories, soot-stained smokestacks and rotting piers in the Inner Harbor yesterday - an emissary of distant times drifting by the ruins of the recent past. The Godspeed, a re-creation of one of the ships that brought the first settlers to Jamestown, Va., in 1607, sailed over the placid, earth-colored waters of the Inner Harbor yesterday and docked near the Baltimore Visitor Center. The ship is stopping here as part of a six-port tour celebrating the 400th anniversary of Jamestown, the first permanent English outpost in the Americas.