Unmoved by their insistence that they had no plans to initiate millennium-related violence in the Holy Land, Israel is deporting 14 members of a Christian cult and stepping up efforts to prevent other extremist cultists entering the country in the countdown to 2000.
Israeli police arrested the 14 men, women and children from the Denver-based "Concerned Christians" movement in synchronised raids on Sunday night. The Interior Ministry has ordered that 11 of them be deported within three days. The other three, who were brought before a magistrates court yesterday, are being questioned by police and will also be questioned by the Shin Bet security agency before they, too, are thrown out of the country.
Israeli police officials claim that the cultists were either planning a mass suicide or some other kind of "extreme act of violence" in Jerusalem this year, out of an apparent belief that such action would trigger the second coming of Jesus and/or their own guaranteed ascent to heaven.
Some police sources say the cultists intended to provoke a millennial shoot-out by opening fire on Israeli security officials, inevitably getting killed in the ensuing gun battle and in the process, somehow prompting the second coming. The cult members have denied any plans for violence.
Led by Mr Monte Kim Miller, who has apparently told his followers that he will die and be resurrected in Jerusalem some time this year, several dozen "concerned Christians" sold their homes in Denver last summer and travelled to the Holy Land.
US police warned the Israeli authorities that they were on their way, but Israel failed to intercept the first 14 members on arrival, later traced them to Jerusalem, lost them again, and finally arrested them in two separate rented homes just outside the city on Sunday night.
Mr Miller, who was not among the group arrested, is still believed to be aiming to find his way to Jerusalem, reportedly via Canada, Mexico or Libya, together with other members of the group.
Israeli police, somewhat chastened by their failure to stop the first group at the border, are now intensifying their activities, and are fearful that other apocalyptic believers may attempt to mark the advent of the millennium in bloodshed.
The Knesset yesterday voted through legislation, 85 to 27, confirming that general elections are to be held on May 17th, more than a year ahead of schedule, because of the collapse of the Netanyahu government. The parliament also adopted in a first reading yesterday a law toughening the conditions for any return of the Golan Heights to Syria or the handover of east Jerusalem to the Palestinians.
Israel yesterday sealed off the West Bank city of Hebron after two Israeli women were injured, one seriously, in a shooting attack by Palestinian gunmen. The Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, called for Palestinian leader, Mr Yasser Arafat, to arrest those responsible.