Israel 'plans more settler homes'

The Israeli government has secretly approved construction of 300 new houses in one of the largest and most controversial of the West Bank settlements, the Maariv daily reported Sunday.

Three months ago Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz signed permits allowing construction of the housing units on the western fringes of Ariel in contravention of the US-backed "road map" plan, but the tenders have not yet been issued due to "diplomatic considerations."

The Defense Ministry would not comment on the report but the mayor of Ariel, Ron Nachman, told AFP a new tranche of building work had been approved, without saying when, emphasizing it formed part of a wider "development plan" for 2,000 homes which was given the go-ahead several years ago.

Ariel, home to around 18,000 residents, lies some 20 kilometers to the east of the internationally recognized boundary between Israel and the West Bank, the so-called Green Line.

The news emerged after the US slapped the Israeli government on the wrist last week after it confirmed plans to build 600 new homes in Maale Adumin, the largest of the West Bank settlements.

Under the terms of the road map, Israel is obliged to freeze all settlement activity in the Occupied Territories.

The Israeli anti-settlement watchdog Peace Now said Mofaz and Israeli Premier Ariel Sharon "were acting like thieves" in the night and damaging the special relationship with the US.

"The construction of hundreds of new housing blocks east of the Green Line is a death blow to the solution of two states for two people and damages any future attempt to reach a permanent agreement with the Palestinian people," it said in a statement.

Sharon has vowed Israel would keep Ariel and Maale Adumin under any permanent peace agreement with the Palestinians, who seek to build a viable state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, areas Israel captured in the 1967 war.

Meanwhile, the Labor Party moved closer to joining Sharon's government after coalition talks yielded written agreement on key peacemaking issues, including accelerated compensation payments for Israeli settlers to be evacuated in a Gaza withdrawal, lawmakers said Sunday.

But Labor legislators cautioned that sharp disagreements remain over economic issues, including what one party official called the "piggish capitalism" of the Sharon government.

In the partial agreement, published Sunday in the Yediot Ahronot daily, Sharon's Likud Party and Labor affirm that they will work toward a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and will try to implement the US-backed road map.

The two sides also agreed to accelerate compensation payments for settlers, with payouts to begin as early as next week. Such payments could induce more settlers to leave voluntarily and weaken what is expected to be considerable settler resistance that might delay or even sabotage a withdrawal.

Labor Party leader Shimon Peres told Yediot that economic policy was the main sticking point. "Everything is nearly agreed on and now we are trying to solve the economic issues," the daily quoted Peres as saying.

In a separate development, Palestinian and Israeli officials were to meet Sunday to finalize an agreement on arming Palestinian police to put an end to the security chaos in the West Bank, sources on both sides said.

"There will be a security meeting today on the issue of deploying the armed police," Palestinian Negotiations Minister Saeb Erakat told AFP, without detailing where the meeting would take place and who would participate.

The Israeli Army's chief of staff, General Moshe Yaalon, said that while he supported the idea of allowing the security forces to be armed in the West Bank, both sides had to coordinate any such move.

The Israeli Army shot dead an unarmed Palestinian teenager in the southern Gaza Strip early Saturday, while troops launched an incursion into the Rafah refugee camp.

Ahmed al-Qiyq, 16, was shot dead close to the Sufa border crossing in the south-eastern corner of the Gaza Strip, Palestinian hospital sources said. - Agencies

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=7077

Under the now dead "peace plan", Arafat was to crack down on terrorists in the Territories. Still waiting. Arafat was to democratize the PA. Still wating. Arafat was to consolidate some of the 47 different "security" groups. Still waiting. Arafat was to confiscate illegal weapons from terrorist militias. Still Waiting. Enough waiting. Enough of Arafat and his lies. Israel should go get him, put him on trial for terrorism and murder, and then hang him. In the meantime, Israel will do what it need to do for it's security and it's growing population: it will finish the Wall and it will expand settlements as it sees fit. Arafat had his chance. He's old and in the way now, and we just have to wait until he dies or is deposed. In any event, Israel will talk to another generation of Palis at some point, but talking to them now is pointless. Eventually, there will be two states: Israel and a Pali-Jordanian federation of some kind. There will NEVER be an independent Palistinian state. The IDF will always control the Jordan valley, the airspace, etc. Might as well just get used to the idea.

And we wonder why the Palestinian People are fighting for their land and freedom.
To end the resistance to the Occupation you have to end the Occupation that allows for the resistance….
The only way to tell if it is freedom fighting or terrorism is to allow for a Palestinian State in the Whole of the West Bank and Gaza.
If the Fighting Stops it was the Occupation and Freedom Fighting.
If the Fighting Does not Stop inside Israel Proper it is terrorism.
Tit for Tat is getting us nowhere, as proof you can see there is still conflict after thirty six years. So you have to look at the problem as it stands today, and do the right thing so both people can live in peace and with freedom.
If only one side has freedom, the other side will always be seeking it, in anyway they can. That is why there have been wars as far back as we can remember.
Thirty six years of war should be enough for such a small number of people, when you consider the World Population.
You can save Israel by allowing the Palestinian People to have their small state in the Whole of the West Bank and Gaza.
If Israel wants a wall/fence/barrier they should build it on the Green line, that way the Viable Palestinian State called for in the Road Map can be achieved.
Instead of forcing the settlers to move they can than choose for themselves whether they want to remain on the east side of the wall or move into Israel.
There are 1,200,000 or so Arabs living inside Israel Proper.
There are 400,000 or so Jews living inside the West Bank and Gaza.
Trying to remove all the settlement can be an almost undoable task.
So Set the Borders for Israel to it Pre 1967 Border (Green Line) and have the State of Palestine inside the West Bank and Gaza.
If the U.N. can decide the Borders of Israel in 1948.
The U.N. can decide the Borders of Palestine in 2004.
You would end up with Israel with a majority Jewish Population and Palestine with a majority Muslim Population.
This would allow for the Israeli Military to Guard and Control the Israeli pre 1967 borders instead of confiscating Palestinian Land and Demolishing Palestinian Homes in the West Bank and Gaza that only goes to fuel the need for the Palestinian People to fight for their Freedom.
The Jews who do not like living in the new Palestinian State can feel free to move to Israel if they so choose.
The Arabs living inside Israel can feel free to move to the new Palestinian State if they so choose.
Almost every nation on earth has more then one ethnic group or religious group. So why not Israel and Palestine?
It would sure be better then the never ending conflict we have right now.

a 'bot.

Unplug. End transmission. We get it.

Over.


Out.

I guess everyone does not get it, otherwise there would already be Peace in the Middle East..........
Info, Info:
How many People have died and how in the last three and one half years since this struggle for Palestinian Freedom began?
For complete details:
CLICK HERE > http://www.ifamericansknew.org/stats/deaths.html
And thousands of people made homeless because of home demolitions in the West Bank and Gaza.
For complete details:
CLICK HERE > http://www.ifamericansknew.org/stats/homes.html