The 10-month freeze on West Bank settlement construction sunsetted last night, and the settlers are ready to get to work on a backlog of new homes and structures.
Construction is expected to begin on Tuesday at a number of sites including Shavei Shomron, Adam, Oranit, Sha’arei Tikva, Yakir, Revava, Kokhav Hashahar, Kedumim and Karmei Tzur. A cornerstone is to be laid for a new neighborhood in the southern West Bank settlement of Beit Hagai, with construction set to start soon.
After the Sukkot holiday, the Yesha Council of settlements and local West Bank councils are expected to pressure Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into approving new construction.
Netanyahu had called for restraint from the settlers, but they did not listen.
The end of the freeze was expected to be marked by a flurry of events, with busloads of Likud activists scheduled to tour different settlements in support of the settlers, and hear stories of the damage incurred by the freeze. At 3 P.M., a cornerstone for a new daycare center was to be laid in Kiryat Netafim, and at 4 P.M. thousands of settlers were expected at a rally in Revava, to be attended by MKs and municipality heads.
MK Danny Danon (Likud) said that construction was likely to begin on some 2,000 housing units across the West Bank.
This is all is spite of continued warnings from the Palestinians that they would walk away from negotiations if the settlement freeze was lifted. To make matters worse, Netanyahu has adopted the new talking point that a precondition of peace talks is that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish State, meaning that they give up the right-of-return of refugees before negotiations even begin. By refusing the Palestinians’ one precondition at the same time that he imposes his own, he makes it almost impossible for the talks to get going.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is trying to keep things alive, and he’s arranged a meeting of the Arab League next Monday. Meanwhile, French President Nicholas Sarkozy is calling for a summit in Paris in October, which would include Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.
Abbas said the construction of settlements should be frozen for another 3-4 months, a position Sarkozy backed as crucial.
“The settlements must stop,” the French president said.
But there is no sign that they will stop.
Who could have seen this coming? Even in spite of Netanyahu’s call for restraint? Golly!
there is much more honest discussion of these things in the Israeli press than in our own. It’s kind of ridiculous.
Erm, were you expecting anything more? As I said, either Obama knows something that I don’t, or he’s just trying to waste our time.
Netanyahu and the Likud government will not negotiate in good faith until their US aid is on the line apparently.
The obvious agreement is for Israel to withdraw from the settlements in exchange for Palestinians forgoing right of return to pre-1967 Israeli territory. The “improvements” in Palestine will somewhat compensate Palestinians who decide to return.
Israel has until Thursday under terms of the operating agreement of the talks to come to its senses. And the IDF better be willing to evict settlers from the occupied territories or an international force will when the any agreement is signed.
If there is no agreement, there is continued war. And since Western corporations have broken up several nationalized oil industries, it is unlikely that withholding oil can be used for leverage. Which means at some point, countries who consider themselves allies of the Palestinians will in concert take action. The first casualties of such a move will be Mubarak and Abdullah.
Netanyahu and Likud live in the illusion that this is still 1967 and that their nuclear arsenal is the great equalizer. The question is how far they want to push that. Would they actually use nuclear weapons? And what would the consequences be if they did?
George W. Bush and the neo-cons broke American power to deal with military crises of the order that a war between Israel and its neighbors would present. The possibility of American intervention is no longer the deterrent it was in the 1990s. And after Iraq and Afghanistan, the American public is not likely to want to intervene anywhere again for a while, especially in the Middle East.
And with a Republican-dominated or gridlocked Congress, the danger of self-inflicted damage is magnified.
This is a situation in which Obama should act against type and be tough on Israel. Quietly. Let them complain through AIPAC or other lobbyists.
There is too much at stake to kick this can down the road again for another decade.
The Israeli government was not negotiating in good faith. It never has.
I don’t know why we are even paying attention to these negotiations. Netanyahu is no more interested in making peace with the Palestinians than Hitler was in making peace with Poland. The whole thing is a charade to please the American administration. A kabuki theater if there ever was one.
I still don’t understand why we are providing so much financial support to Israel. It’s been a long time since they were a developing economy.
I think Obama should put some serious pressure on Israel by saying that if they are not serious about peace then they will no longer get any aid or U.S. weapons.
Now, I know that won’t sit well with some, but I think it is time to have a candid conversation with America about Israel. He should, at least, get the message out that there are plenty of Israelis who aren’t happy with the treatment of the Palestinians and the peace process.
AIPAC isn’t Israel and they aren’t really acting in the interests of Israeli citizens.
The US gives aid in various forms to Israel (and pays protection money to Egypt and Jordan for the sake of Israel) because of a bizarre mish-mash of tribalism, religion(s), campaign contributions, and arms sales. There isn’t a rational basis for the relationship in its current form from the US perspective.
The settlements will stop when the world powers call Israel to account for its criminal behavior. Expecting Israel to do it on its own initiative is like expecting a 2-year-old to volunteer to stop eating ice cream. The settlements will stop when Israel has to finance them, and everything else, out of its own pockets. Cut off all international “aid” now.
I’ve always thought Right of Return is just not possible, it’s simply been way to long to make that even remotely doable.
Of course I also think the Israeli settlements should be bulldozed and the land-thieves thrown out.
I don’t think they should be bulldozed. They’re likely well-constructed. They would make wonderful housing for those exercising the right of return.
But evicting the settlers will be difficult. After settlers were successfully evicted from Sinai, Likud said “Never again.”
Agreed about the bulldozing, but I’ve never bought into the argument about “evicting” settlers. Israel’s government has no business, no right to be in, the settlement areas. All it has to do is give ample warning and then withdraw. Settlers can then decide for themselves whether to leave or take their chances without military protection.
Much like the settlers in Gaza were not removed? Of course, that gesture of goodwill was reciprocated…
“Gesture of good will”?! Give us a break, Oscar.
What would you call removing every settler from Gaza? Aggression?
Can we please stop with the “the peace process is in jeopardy”? There has to be something there for it to be in jeopardy.
Is there anyone who seriously believes that there will be a peaceful settlement to the exclusive claims of the two sides? On the two most contentious issues that I’m aware of – Right of Return vs. Jewish State and the status of Jerusalem – there is no opportunity for negotiation. It is, as I see it, a zero-sum deal – Jerusalem will be divided or it will be entirely under the control of one entity or the other. The Palestinians say that their Right of Return is non-negotiable and Israel says that its existence as a Jewish State is non-negotiable.
There will be no peace.
Israel will continue the settlements and kicking this peace process down the road for several generations until the West Bank becomes Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California – it’s how the West is won…