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Friday August 27, 2004

New Israeli settlements getting U.S. nod, report says

by dan baron
jta

jerusalem | With apparent approval from the United States, Israel is cementing its hold on some settlement blocs in the West Bank.

A weekend report in The New York Times that the Bush administration will not contest some new construction within the existing settlement boundaries, in an apparent reversal of the U.S.-led peace “road map,” met with little surprise in Israel.

Ariel Sharon’s government had run ads for bids on West Bank building contracts for weeks, drawing only mild criticism from U.S. officials.

That the campaign came as the Israeli prime minister struggled to win over his Likud Party on his plan to “disengage” from the Palestinians is seen as no coincidence.

“Sharon needs to convince Israeli hawks that there is a trade-off for quitting the Gaza Strip,” a senior Prime Minister’s Office source said Sunday, Aug. 22, referring to the biggest

withdrawal slated for 2005 under the disengagement plan. “That means making it clear that West Bank enclaves will grow.”

According to Ha’aretz, the United States decided to step in on Sharon’s behalf after the Likud Central Committee voted against his bid to bring the opposition Labor Party into a “national unity” government and thus shore up his plan.

Israel has long argued that it should be allowed to develop settlements in order to cope with their “natural growth,” or children born to residents.

Sharon “knew the American administration would find it difficult to denounce him while he was struggling against the right and Likud rebels. Certainly not when President George Bush himself is fighting for another term,” wrote Ha’aretz analyst Aluf Benn, alluding to crucial Jewish votes in the upcoming U.S. presidential elections.

Washington’s support is not unquestioning.

Though The New York Times article quoted a senior Bush administration official as saying “there is some flexibility” concerning limited growth of settlements, the Bush administration is unlikely to accept wholesale relocation of the 8,000 evacuated Gaza settlers to the West Bank as falling under this rubric.

The Israeli government has launched an Administration for Assistance to Gaza Strip Residents, designed to coordinate compensation for the settlers.

Those who leave willingly could receive as much as $300,000 a family.

With such payments in the works, many Israelis may want the settlers to end up in the internationally recognized boundaries of the Jewish state.

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