Posted on 05/24/2009 3:47:20 AM PDT by jerusalemjudy
The E-1 area is a part of the Israeli city of Maale Adumim, just to the east of Jerusalem. An E-1 construction plan was devised in order to link Maale Adumim and its 36,000 residents to Jerusalem. Every Israeli prime minister since Yitzhak Rabin has supported the plan that covers an area of largely uninhabited, state-owned land.
Without control of the E-1 area, Israel is apprehensive about a Palestinian belt of construction that will threaten Jerusalem from the east, block the city's development eastward, and undermine Israel's control of the Jerusalem-Jericho road. This major artery is of paramount strategic importance so that Israel can transport troops and equipment eastward and northward via the Jordan Rift Valley in time of war.
The completion of E-1 would not cut the West Bank in half and undermine Palestinian contiguity. Israel has planned a new road that would allow Palestinian traffic coming from the south to pass eastward of Maale Adumim and continue northward to connect with the cities in the northern West Bank. This Palestinian bypass road would actually reduce the time for Palestinian drivers traveling in a north-south direction who would encounter no Israeli roadblocks.
The main threat to Israel's future contiguity comes from encroachments on E-1 made by illegal Palestinian construction. The area around E-1 is within Area C, where, according to Oslo II, Israel retained the powers of zoning and planning. As a result, much of the recently completed Palestinian construction there is illegal. In contrast, none of the Oslo Agreements prohibited Israeli settlement activity, though Israel undertook unilateral limitations upon itself in this area in recent years.
Israeli construction of E-1 will not undermine Palestinian contiguity, but were Israel to lose control of E-1, the contiguity of Israel would be severely compromised.
(Excerpt) Read more at jcpa.org ...
Zer0's just tryin' to "...level the field....spread the [land] around."
There's nothing wrong with stating the obvious truth, 0bama wants Israel to go down.
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