In a forceful display of political will, the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Ehud Barak, ordered in troops early yesterday to evict hundreds of Jewish settlers opposed to his land-for-peace policies who were encamped at an illegal settlement outpost in the West Bank.
Then, only hours later, in another blow to the settlement movement, the government voted overwhelmingly, by 17-1, to carry out the next Israeli troop withdrawal from the West Bank as stipulated in the interim agreement signed in early September by Mr Barak and the Palestinian leader, Mr Yasser Arafat.
In an attempt to stave off the evacuation at Havat Maon, or Maon Ranch - a settlement outpost near Hebron which had become a symbol of settler opposition to the government's peace policies - settlers barricaded themselves in shacks, climbed on to the roofs of makeshift buildings and clung to doors as several hundred soldiers fanned out over the largely barren hilltop to remove them.
But the settlers, many of whom had flocked to Havat Maon - a cluster of huts and tents - to resist evacuation, were carried off by the soldiers to waiting buses.
While most settlers resisted passively, some 30 were detained. "Refuse orders," some settlers chanted to the unarmed soldiers. "You are removing Jews from the Land of Israel," screamed others. "Jewish blood was spilled here," one woman shouted.
Havat Maon was one of 42 West Bank settlement outposts established over the last year with the intention of preventing any further territorial concessions to the Palestinians.
Several weeks ago, though, Mr Barak struck a deal with settlement leaders whereby they agreed to dismantle 12 of the outposts voluntarily. While 11 were evacuated in the last two weeks, settlers at Havat Maon refused to budge, dismissing the deal as a capitulation by the leadership.
A leading adviser to Mr Barak, Mr Danny Yatom, said the Havat Maon confrontation was "a big test of Israeli democracy", and he insisted that the prime minister would not accept a situation where "someone points a gun at the government".
The next land handover to the Palestinians approved yesterday by the government will see a further 5 per cent of the West Bank coming under full or partial Palestinian control.