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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: FaultLine who wrote (55718)	11/4/2002 1:23:55 PM
From: Win Smith	Respond to of 281500

Swallowing all before them economist.com [ Given the general trend, I should be happy for 2 ok's out of 4. Being a contrary sort, though, I will demonstrate my usual bad attitude by posting this update on the not-"occupied territories". ] Despite the intifada, Israel intensifies colonisation of the West Bank KNOWING that it will take more than a cut in subsidies to reverse what they see as the gravest threat to their dream of a viable state, Palestinians were underwhelmed by the Labour Party's decision to leave Ariel Sharon's coalition over the money that the Israeli government proposes to spend on settlements. There are now 123 Jewish settlements in the West Bank, and 12 in occupied East Jerusalem, housing some 380,000 settlers who share the territory with 2.4m Palestinians. They do not share it equally. According to a recent study by B'Tselem, an Israeli human-rights group, the West Bank settler population doubled in size during the seven-year Oslo peace process, and the settlements' territorial reach has now been extended to cover nearly 42% of the West Bank. This huge expansion has been achieved largely through the construction of settler-only bypass roads and military zones which serve to integrate the settlements with Israel proper. What was interim during Oslo has become formalised during the intifada, says Yehezkel Lein, a B'Tselem researcher. Under the fire of conflict, settlements, roads and zones have in effect become Israel's new military borders in the West Bank, enabling the army to isolate Palestinian villages one from the other, and to reoccupy six of the eight main Palestinian towns. The changes are most noticeable along Israel's northern border with the West Bank and around East Jerusalem, two areas Israel seeks to annex in any final settlement with the Palestinians. This is where most of Israel's settlement expenditure is being concentrated, says Mussi Raz, a member of the Knesset from the left-wing Meretz Party. Chunks of the northern West Bank have been cut off by the “security fence”—actually a grid of barriers, roads, trenches and sensors—that it is now being created along the pre-1967 border. Around East Jerusalem, the fence is mapped to go even deeper into the West Bank. Palestinians fear that it will eventually envelop not only the East Jerusalem settlements (which the Israelis do not count as settlements as they long ago unilaterally annexed the city) but also vast urban blocks, such as Maale Adumim, in the West Bank. The result, they say, will be to cut off the 276,000 Palestinians in East Jerusalem and its environs from their West Bank hinterland. Moreover, the implantation of Jewish enclaves within the densely populated Palestinian areas in and around the Old City is being encouraged with government money. This mixing of populations is presumably intended to prevent any return to the “understandings” on Jerusalem reached by Israeli and Palestinian negotiators, especially at the Taba talks in January 2001. It is, says Menachem Klein, an adviser to the Israeli delegation at the talks, Mr Sharon's answer to Bill Clinton's “parameter” that what is Jewish should be Israeli, and what is Arab should be Palestinian. A similar logic appears to be behind the 100 or so settler outposts that now pepper the West Bank, and whose “illegal” establishment Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, the Labour leader and departing defence minister, had at last decided to reverse. Begun as caravans on tops of hills, the outposts often develop into “legal” settlements. Take Itamar, a settlement near Nablus. Home to fewer than 500 settlers, it has established seven outposts, some ten kilometres (six miles) beyond its built-up area. Earlier this month, the last families from the neighbouring Palestinian village of Yanun were forced to leave their homes after years of armed harassment from Itamar's settlers. It was the first full evacuation of a Palestinian village since the 1967 war. The Palestinians ask for a full freeze on settlement construction as a first step to their evacuation or dismantlement. They presented this demand to William Burns, the State Department's special envoy, when he was in Jericho last week. Mr Burns is touring the region with the draft of a “roadmap” to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict within three years. Among a slew of other demands, the roadmap calls for dismantling the outposts by December, and a freeze “on all settlement activity” by next May. But Palestinians believe that only a handful of the outposts will

To: FaultLine who wrote (55718)	11/4/2002 1:46:23 PM
From: KLP	Respond to of 281500

Re #55717 excellent: good thing I had just swallowed the coke when I saw that! Oh man, are you ever a wild one.<TIC> KLP@workingagainstbloatbutloosingbattle.glub

To: FaultLine who wrote (55718)	11/5/2002 12:32:22 AM
From: FaultLine	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

YEM (Yet More Examples) Please take this in a good natured way. :o) 55718 thread bloat 55719 ok 55720 good 55721 yes :o) 55722 thread bloat 55723 old business 55724 I always get that 55725 interesting John 55726 are you kidding Condor 55727 thread bloat :oP 55728 ok 55729 ok 55730 ok 55731 thread bloat 55732 ok 55733 ok 55734 thread bloat 55735 thread bloat 55736 thread bloat 55737 thread bloat 55738 ok 55739 ok 55740 ok 55741 thread bloat 55742 ok 55743 ok 55744 thread bloat 55745 ok 55746 thread bloat 55747 ok 55748 ok 55749 ok 55750 ok 55751 thread bloat 55752 ok 55753 ok 55754 ok 55755 ot 55756 thread bloat 55757 thread bloat 55758 ok 55759 thread bloat 55760 thread bloat 55761 thread bloat 55762 ok Cheers, --fl