Israeli Farmer Found Slain; Arabs Blamed

JERUSALEM — An Israeli farmer was found stabbed and bludgeoned to death in his vineyard Monday. Police, who blamed Palestinian activists, rounded up 20 Arab suspects.

The slaying of Eli Cohen was shocking to many Israelis because it occurred in a small, isolated farming community inside Israel.

Recent Palestinian-Israeli violence has occurred primarily in Jerusalem or in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip but has rarely spilled over into Israeli towns.

Two other Israelis have been killed in the uprising. An Israeli soldier was shot to death in the West Bank on March 20 and a Jewish teen-ager was accidentally shot to death by an Israeli during a clash with Arab villagers in April.

Nearly 200 Palestinians have died in the six-month uprising.

Police, who were holding several suspects for questioning, said they are investigating all possible motives for the killing.

Maj. Gen. Amram Mitzna, head of the West Bank military command, told the community: “The war here is a lot more complicated and difficult . . . (but) it’s likely that this was a terrorist attack and we will do everything we can.”

“This kind of murder requires an appropriate response,” Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir told Israel Radio. He said the government will take action “in due course.”

Cohen, a 33-year-old father of two, was stabbed in the back and beaten, apparently with an iron rod.