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

To: michael97123 who wrote (72229)	2/7/2003 6:55:20 PM
From: Jacob Snyder	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

<Pressuring israel to abandon settlements now as a first step is ludicrous> What is needed, to break the stalemate, is a Grand Gesture. Something where we can go to the Saudis and Jordanians and Egyptians, and say, "We are taking concrete steps, actions not words, to meet you halfway". Those settlements hurt Israeli security. There are dozens of tiny clumps of trailers, everywhere in the Occupied Territories, and they all need to be protected by soldiers, along with the roads to them. They provide no barriar to external military attack; they present a large group of easily accessible, isolated targets for Hamas. And, Israel has already offered (at Taba) to dismantle them and give that land to the Palestinian State. Many of them are illegal, even under Israili law, having been established after Israel agreed to a settlement freeze years ago. The former government (that got 90% of a peace treaty negotiated at Taba) was willing to trade land for peace. Unfortunately, Arafat said "no", and that may end up being as disastrous for their cause, as the rejection of the 1947 UN partition plan. That refusal to compromise, led directly to the Likud victory at the polls. And Sharon is probably insincere about ever allowing a Palestinian State to exist (west of the Jordan, that is). So (today) both sides would require some serious arm-twisting, in order to negotiate a compromise peace.