Showdown Looming Over Israeli Settlement

Let us hope that that the land and water stealing PIRATES from Europe are
put in their place by the USA

It is time to grow up after 2000 years and become descent citizens of
Planet Earth

ES

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http://original.antiwar.com/kessel-klohendler/2009/05/25/showdown-looming-
over-israeli-settlements/

Showdown Looming Over Israeli Settlements
by Jerrold Kessel and Pierre Klochendler, May 26, 2009


JERUSALEM - A showdown over Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank
is looming between Israel and the United States barely a week after the
encounter at the White House between U.S. President Barack Obama and
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. What’s becoming increasingly
clear is that the May 18 encounter was no friendly getting-to-know-you
meeting between a new president and a new prime minister of the Middle
East’s most enduring alliance.

IPS has learned from sources in Netanyahu’s Washington entourage that
following the White House meeting, the Israeli PM confided his "unease"
to wealthy U.S. conservative supporters about the direction in which the
Obama administration is headed.

Since his return home, the Israeli leader has been putting on a brave
face, sometimes even bordering on bravado. He was, however, clearly
shaken. Not so much from any dramatically new specific policy moves that
were laid out by the U.S. – what resonates with Netanyahu is what
President Obama had to say about halting settlements and what that
portends for the U.S. Middle East policy-in-the-making.

The concern expressed itself again at Sunday’s weekly meeting of the
Israeli government. Netanyahu opened the meeting by sharing with his
colleagues the Obama demand for a total freeze on all settlement
activity, including no new homes in existing settlements to accommodate
what Israel calls "natural population growth."

Netanyahu dug in his heels, although he tried to couch the impending set-
to in a mild manner. No new settlements would be built, he told his
cabinet colleagues, but settlement expansion should go on, for all the
U.S. objections: "Not to address the question of natural growth is simply
not fair," the prime minister said.

A close Netanyahu political ally, Transport Minister Yisrael Katz, added:
"There is one thing to which we just cannot agree – that the government
agenda will look like a witch-hunt against the settlers and the drying up
of the settlements."

And Defense Minister Ehud Barak lined up behind Netanyahu: "It’s not
conceivable that anyone seriously intends that a family with two children
who have bought a small apartment will be told that an order has come
from the U.S. that they may not add two extra rooms when the family grows
– that’s illogical," Barak said.

The Israeli position is most unlikely to satisfy the U.S. Netanyahu seems
fully aware that this could be just the beginning of a major row with
Washington. He thus appears to be preparing to parry the comprehensive
U.S. "no" on settlements by backing the intention of the Israeli defense
establishment finally to move on so-called illegal settlements (small
outposts that were established on the fringes of government-approved
settlements in order to expand Israeli control over Palestinian
territory).

The day Netanyahu came back, the army pulled down one such wildcat
settlement, but within hours the settlers had rebuilt the outpost. Now,
though, the Defense Ministry confirms that a comprehensive plan is being
drawn up to dismantle 23 mini-settlements created since 2001 without
government approval.

Israeli Public Radio quoted sources in the prime minister’s office as
confirming that Netanyahu would "stand firm behind" Defense Minister Ehud
Barak if he concludes that a showdown with the "illegal" settlers is
required. This, even at the risk of an improbable showdown with his own
nationalist coalition: "We are first and foremost obliged to respect the
law," Netanyahu insisted at Sunday’s cabinet meeting.

Obama urged the ending of settlement building in order to lay the ground
for a resumption of peace talks with the Palestinians. But Palestinian
Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has said there is no point in meeting
Netanyahu unless he stops settlement construction and agrees to open
talks on Palestinian independence.

Over the years, successive Israeli governments have sanctioned 121
settlements, with the settlers themselves putting up an additional 100 or
so small outposts since the early 1990s. The overall settler population
is around 280,000.

It’s becoming clear that the approach of the administration is now widely
accepted in the U.S. Congress, traditionally a stronghold of support for
Israel.

A five-person congressional delegation from the House Subcommittee on the
Middle East and South Asia said after meeting Israeli officials in
Jerusalem on Sunday that they were "skeptical" about the Netanyahu
government’s ability to help the U.S. move the peace process with the
Palestinians forward. The committee voiced specific concern about
Israel’s insistence on "natural growth" in existing settlements.

The heat that Netanyahu took during his tête-à-tête with Obama has
clearly left its mark. He’s even going so far as to try to build on an
informal agreement reached on settlement construction between his
predecessor Ehud Olmert and the Bush administration prior to the 2007
Annapolis conference at which the U.S., Israel, and the Palestinians
mapped out possible directions on how to proceed toward peace.

"The understandings Olmert reached, especially on the right to ‘natural
growth,’ contain clauses that can certainly form a basis for
understandings with the Obama administration," said one official in the
prime minister’s office.

"Is there still a need for clarification?" asked a critic of Netanyahu,
former government minister and peace activist Yossi Sarid. In his
newspaper column "Peace Diplomacy," Sarid asked rhetorically, "Though he
pretends not to understand, have the disputes not been clarified to
Benjamin Netanyahu’s satisfaction? From all roofs in Washington – the
White House, the State Department, and Congress – birds sing out U.S.
policy. The diplomatic picture could not be clearer. We don’t really need
a detailed peace plan, because it’s already here on the table."

Sarid continues: "It’s not simply an American plan, but a global plan
acceptable to everyone but this Israeli government. Netanyahu alone
continues his rearguard battle, dragging on and on this epic Israeli
tragedy. Only one issue remains unclear – can Obama succeed where his
predecessors have failed? Can he stand his ground where American power
has faltered for decades?"

(Inter Press Service)
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