Posted on 12/26/2006 12:32:57 PM PST by NormsRevenge
JERUSALEM - Israel has approved a new settlement in the West Bank to house former Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip, officials said Tuesday, breaking a promise to the U.S. to halt home construction in the Palestinian territories.
Construction in the northern West Bank town of Maskiot began months ago, but the project only received final approval from the Defense Ministry last week, said Dubi Tal, head of the Jordan Valley regional council.
Saeb Erekat, an aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, condemned the construction and urged the government to revoke its authorization, saying it violated the spirit of cooperation inaugurated by a meeting Saturday between Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
"What message are they trying to send?" Erekat asked.
The settlement will house 23 families who were evacuated when Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip last year, and will eventually house 100 families, Tal said. "I estimate that within two or three weeks the foundations for temporary housing will begin," he said.
Olmert has signaled in recent weeks that he is ready to make broad territorial concessions to the Palestinians under a final peace settlement, but he has also said he wants Israel to retain large settlement blocs. The Palestinians claim all of the West Bank, captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, as part of a future independent state.
Under the stalled, U.S.-backed "road map" peace plan, Israel pledged to freeze all settlement expansion, while the Palestinians promised to crack down on militants. Neither side has followed through.
"The U.S. view on settlements remains unchanged," said Geoff Anisman, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv. "The U.S. continues to urge both sides to meet their road map obligations and to avoid taking steps that could be viewed as predetermining the outcome of final status negotiations."
Saturday's Olmert-Abbas summit sought to build on momentum from an Israeli cease-fire with the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, which took effect last month. Olmert made a series of gestures to the moderate Palestinian leader, offering to lift some West Bank checkpoints and unfreeze hundreds of millions of dollars in withheld tax funds.
On Sunday, Olmert indicated he might release some Palestinian prisoners in the coming days, softening his long-standing opposition to such a move.
Despite the truce, Gaza militants launched seven rockets into Israel on Tuesday, hitting a house in the town of Sderot and seriously wounding two people, Israeli officials said. The militants have launched about 60 rockets since the truce was declared, and Israeli officials have warned their patience is waning.
Meanwhile, Israeli troops shot and seriously injured a Palestinian near the fence separating Israel and the Gaza Strip. Palestinian officials said the man was a farmer working near the fence. The army said two Palestinians were attempting to sabotage part of the fence and ignored warning shots before troops opened fire, hitting one in the legs.
In an effort to push forward with peace efforts, Olmert and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, a key mediator between Israel and the Palestinians, will meet next week in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik, an Israeli government official said.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting had not been officially announced, did not say what day it would take place.
Egypt has played a major role in mediating between Israel and the Palestinians, and has been trying to negotiate the release of an Israeli soldier captured by militants linked to Hamas, the militant group that controls the Palestinian parliament and Cabinet and is a rival to Abbas' Fatah.
The rivalry between the two Palestinian groups has broken out into open street battles in Gaza in recent weeks.
Jordanian leaders have invited both Abbas and Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas for talks in Amman in an effort to bridge the divide. Negotiations over forming a national unity government broke down last month, and Abbas has threatened to call early elections.
Jordan's Prime Minister Marouf al-Bakhit told reporters Tuesday that his country "has specific ideas to help the two sides to reach a unity government solution." He did not elaborate or say when the meeting would take place.
Haniyeh said Tuesday that he planned to accept the invitation. "We hope this will be a blessed opening for national unity."
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Associated Press Writer Shafika Mattar contributed to this report in Amman, Jordan.
Members of Israel Foreign service look at displayed exploded rockets fired by Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip, during a visit at a police station in the southern Israeli city of Sderot Tuesday Dec. 26, 2006. A homemade rocket launched from Gaza landed in the Israeli border town of Sderot on Tuesday morning, causing some damage to property but no injuries. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)
A general view shows Kochav Yair, a wealthy housing development in northern Israel on the Green Line that separates Israeli territory from the Palestinian West Bank in January 2006. Israel has approved the construction of a new settlement in the occupied West Bank for the first time in more than 10 years, officials said, in a move slammed by the Palestinians and a rights group.(AFP/File)
Members of Israel Foreign service look at displayed exploded rockets fired by Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip, during a visit to a police station in the southern Israeli city of Sderot Tuesday Dec. 26, 2006. A homemade rocket launched from Gaza landed in the Israeli border town of Sderot on Tuesday morning, causing some damage to property but no injuries. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)
Why should any sovreign nation "promise" not to build houses on its own land? Why would Reichsmarshall Rice demand such a promise?
Don't thank me for fixing it; just doing my job.
There will be no scientific research, no reading at the libraries and universities, no rights for women and the worst thing of all, no bacon.
"Israel settlement breaks promise to U.S."
Who has a better right? It's not the United States' land.
If it were not for the Israelis undertaking construction in the disputed areas, there would be NO construction going on in West Bank at all. That is way more than the Palistinian Authority is doing.
Besides, there is no certainty the Palestinians have a clear title to the land. So if there is a dispute, it is because the Palestinians just want to jump the claim on the land.
"What message are they trying to send?" Erekat asked.
Maybe Israel is saying to the PA .... STOP SHOOTING FRAKKIN MISSILES AT US
Sorry, that doesn't look like a 'plowshare' to me; what kind of crops are they trying to sow?
Another AP headline writer with poor English skills. The "settlement" didn't break a promise...the Israel government did.
Israel Breaks Promise to U.S. On Settlements
Now I'm happy.
"Israel has approved a new settlement in the West Bank to house former Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip, officials said Tuesday, breaking a promise to the U.S. to halt home construction in the Palestinian territories."
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Seems to me that Israel is reacting to what the US has done:
http://www.menewsline.com/stories/2006/december/12_24_3.html
TEL AVIV [MENL] -- The Bush administration has blocked arms and technology transfers to Israel.
Israeli and U.S. sources said the State Department has blocked the transfer of weapons and technology to the Jewish state over the last three months. The sources said the halt reflected deteriorating relations between the two countries since the end of the war in Lebanon in August 2006.
"Nobody will say openly that there is a problem," a government source said. "But there is a serious problem that reflects the marginalization of Israel in U.S. strategy."
The unofficial suspension of U.S. arms deliveries began in late September, the sources said. They said the suspension halted the airlift of air-to-ground and other munitions conducted during and immediately after the Israeli war with Hizbullah.
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Can someone please tell me WTF is going on, that we are pressuring our only true ally in the area, and the only civilized nation in the area to boot, while simultaneously doing everything we can to give our extremely UNcivilized enemies everything that they want??? This is a recipe for utter disaster, politically, militarily and spiritually. What is WRONG with Bush that he is doing this crap?
maybe russia will break a deal with the US on Alaska and try and take it back....or the french with the Louisiana purchase...ok (french - bad example) but you get the point!!!!
when have the muzzies/palis ever kept their word on any deal?...screw them...hope Israel establishes more and more settlements and builds high walls to protect them....let the palis go where they belong...jordan & egypt!!!!
after all...there were no palis until 1967!!!!
The headline should read "arabs break their promise, launch missile attack on Israel".
My position has been that Israel must choose the border it is prepared to live and die by, get their people on the right side of it, and seal it.
Its not up to me to decide where that line should be, but they have to do it unilaterally; negotiating with their murderers is not a solution, it is the ultimate indignity, and it is pointless.
That seems to be what they are doing, they have removed these people from Gaza, and have relocated them to the West Bank. I would take that to mean that this part of the West Bank will not be returned.
The next part of the "marron peace plan" is this; having sealed the border to ordinary ground attackers, they must answer rocket attacks by moving the border forward every time a rocket clears the fence. Move the fence, bulldoze any structures that wind up on the wrong side of the fence, compensate the owners, and push them to the arab side of the fence. Repeat as necessary. You won't have to move the fence very many times before they get the message.
Nothing else will ever work. Killing the attackers, while necessary, is insufficient; there is an endless supply of misfits ready to take their place, and their arab brothers and parents don't care if they live or die, astonishingly their Israeli enemies care more for their lives than do their own people. Killing them, alone, will never end it. The only pressure point that actually transmits pain, is land. Every act of war must be answered by the permanent annexation of previously arab land.
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