Early on the morning of Purim 1994, when the Israel Defense Forces were busy making their final preparations for withdrawing from Gaza and Jericho under the Oslo Accords, Baruch Goldstein decided to do something to shuffle the deck and stop the withdrawal: He fired into a crowd of Muslim worshipers in the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, killing 29 Palestinians.

In his testimony in court, Yigal Amir said that the idea of killing the prime minister first entered his head when he attended Goldstein's funeral and saw Goldstein's hundreds of admirers. At the time, the government declined to listen to then-attorney general Michael Ben-Yair's recommendation that it immediately evacuate all the settlers from Hebron, thereby demonstrating uncompromising determination.

Since then, the extremist camp has grown, and today, its members number in the thousands. It is currently girding up its loins to stop the disengagement - and once again, we are witnessing intensive violent activity whose goal is to fan the flames of hatred between Arabs and Jews. Now, as then, preparations for the disengagement are being accompanied by daily pogroms in Arab communities, destruction of property, harassment of soldiers, physical assaults on Palestinians, cutting down trees, beating and throwing stones at passersby, threatening nighttime patrols through Arab villages and even shooting with intent to kill. When such things happen under the guise of Purim celebrations, they are accompanied by a phrase that recalls the Goldstein affair: "The rioters were drunk."

It is inconceivable that no lessons have been learned - that the army and police are once again waiting for a commission of inquiry to describe after the fact what could have been prevented in advance. The job of the IDF, which is responsible for security in the territories, is not to describe the violence and warn against it, but to prevent it. The Purim rampage by Yitzhar residents was not exceptional; it followed seven other incidents that had been extensively reported in the media during the previous week.

Had it not been for the presence of human rights activists in the area, it is doubtful that the public would even know about what happened. These activists brought about the arrest of Avri Ran of Itamar; they are also the ones who reported the poisoning of livestock in the South Hebron Hills. The settlers, for their part, attacked the soldiers and policemen who came to arrest them and ultimately succeeded in chasing them off.

While the army debates the correct way to treat the settlers, and settler spokesmen exploit feelings of pity to cry about collective delegitimization, the next massacre is brewing almost openly. The principal lesson that should have been learned from Baruch Goldstein - who, like Yigal Amir, was no "wild weed," but rather someone who acted with the support and encouragement of many - is that there is no place for understanding and tolerance on this issue: The rioters belong in jail.

This is even truer when it is clear to everyone that the rioters are attempting to ignite a fire as the evacuation of settlements approaches. This is almost the last possible moment for action by IDF officers in the territories, who last week reported feelings of helplessness in their ranks. One can assume that stronger political backing would produce results. But attempts to ingratiate themselves with the right, and statements such as that of Major General Yair Naveh about the need to embrace the settlers, will lead to disaster.