"The youth, in general, are very angry," Emily Amrousi, spokeswoman for the Council of Jewish Settlements in Judea and Samaria, said. "They are angry at the government, the media, and the leaders, and yes, at the council as well."

"We won't let a bunch of criminals set the agenda in Israel," Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said. "I want to ask where were the parents, where were the rabbis? Are these the kind of people we want to see in Israel?"

But so far the threats by the army and police appear to have fueled the motivation of the young resisters. Many of them appear resigned to the prospect that they would be either injured, arrested or denied entry into elite military units.

"There was no authority that could moderate the youngsters," Roni Daniel, a leading Israeli journalist who has followed the resistance movement, said. "We are headed for a rise in extremism."

In many cases, their activities, which range from building outposts in the West Bank to fighting government forces sent to evict them, have been opposed by their families.

"My parents are very scared of what I am doing," Avi, an 18-year-old who did not want to be further identified, said.

Avi appears typical of many of the teenagers committed to what they term is the battle to save the Jewish state. He is an observant Jew, a model student and active in the youth movement. His brother served in an elite military unit.

Like most of his colleagues, Avi said he did not envision that he would be hurling stones and fighting with police commandos sent to demolish nine homes in the West Bank community of Amona on Wednesday. More than 200 people, most of them youngsters, were injured as police stormed the community with clubs, horses and water cannons. Youngsters hurled sand, stones and water bottles.

"We are talking about the same means and techniques used in the Disengagment [Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and northern West Bank]," Israeli police commander Insp. Gen. Moshe Karadi said. "The only thing that changed was the people."

Israel has pledged to the United States to destroy any community constructed since March 2001. The Israeli group Peace Now said 105 communities were built in the West Bank since 2001.

Officials have dismissed the likelihood that the Jewish resistance was organized by boys and girls who'd rather listen to a lecture by a rabbi than drink alcohol or frequent discos. Instead, the officials have blamed Jewish settlement leaders for manipulating the youngsters.

"They said they came here for ideology," Maj. Gen. Yair Naveh, head of the military's Central Command, said. "It's difficult to believe that youngsters who learn in school believe that it is legitimate to take over private land and establish a house -- and after receiving instructions from the court to leave, then resist. There were also many people with interests that there be violence."

But Jewish settlement leaders insist that the youngsters have quietly rejected the counsel of adults. They said the students were stunned by the rapid and often violent military expulsion of 16,000 Jewish residents and their supporters from the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank in August 2005. Many of the youngsters were angered by rabbis who danced and hugged with police forces sent to destroy the Jewish communities.

In September, hundreds of Orthodox Jewish students who had spent the summer in the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank met to discuss the prevention of additional destruction of Jewish communities. With little assistance from adults, the youngsters began constructing outposts in untilled areas of the West Bank near established communities.

Usually, the youngsters received no support from their parents. In some cases, community leaders appealed to the students to dismantle the makeshift structures and tents, warning that their activities would undermine public support for Israel's retention of the West Bank.

Authorities demonstrated little tolerance toward the youngsters. Troops and police were sent to destroy the outposts and within minutes often ended up beating or arresting the teenagers.

"The police response was so brutal that we soon began to realize that the government saw us as a significant threat," Yitzhak, a young Jewish activist, said.

In January, about 500 Israeli police and troops raided an unauthorized Jewish outpost south of Bethlehem. The police used tear gas in overpowering some 100 youngsters who surrounded a home slated for demolition.

To destroy the homes in Amona, the military organized a force of 7,000. About 3,000 were police, most of them from special forces units and trained in quelling civil resistance.

Officials acknowledge that they underestimated the resilience of the youngsters. They said the police and military stormed Amona with horses, water cannons and clubs as part of a plan meant to prompt the flight of all but the bravest of teenagers. The plan envisioned that up to 40 people would be injured.

Instead, the youngsters fought back and pelted the troops with stones, bricks, sand and bottles filled with colored liquid. In at least one case, a police officer charging with his club was overpowered and then beaten by the youngsters. In all, more than 50 officers were injured.

"I saw murder in their [police] eyes," Miri Dir, a teenage girl, said.

What infuriated military and police commanders was the lack of fear displayed by the resisters. A senior police commander who sought to enter one of the homes slated for demolition was outraged as youngsters closed the shutters. The commander banged on the shutters in frustration.

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