Israel redraws the roadmap, building quietly and quickly

[Scurrilous]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,16518,1594808,00.html

Settler population grows as Sharon grabs more West Bank land than he returned in Gaza

<snip>

"At the northern edge of Jerusalem, on the main road to the Palestinian city of Ramallah, three towering concrete walls are converging around a rapidly built maze of cages, turnstiles and bomb-proof rooms.

When construction at Qalandiya is completed in the coming weeks, the remaining gaps in the 8m (26ft)-high walls will close and those still permitted to travel between the two cities will be channelled through a warren of identity and security checks reminiscent of an international frontier.

The Israeli military built the crossing without fanfare over recent months, along with other similar posts along the length of the vast new "security barrier" that is enveloping Jerusalem, while the world's attention was focussed on the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon's removal of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip.

But these de facto border posts are just one element in a web of construction evidently intended to redraw Israel's borders deep inside the Palestinian territories and secure all of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, and to do it fast so as to put the whole issue beyond negotiation. As foreign leaders, including Tony Blair, praised Mr Sharon for his "courage" in pulling out of Gaza last month, Israel was accelerating construction of the West Bank barrier, expropriating more land in the West Bank than it was surrendering in Gaza, and building thousands of new homes in Jewish settlements.

"It's a trade off: the Gaza Strip for the settlement blocks; the Gaza Strip for Palestinian land; the Gaza Strip for unilaterally imposing borders," said Dror Etkes, director of the Israeli organisation Settlement Watch. "They don't know how long they've got. That's why they're building like maniacs."

[Hardrada]

1. This is clever, of course, but ultimately will not be really

of great utility in ensuring Israel's viability. Peace talks and not all this Wall stuff should have priority.

[pelsar]

2. it works....

no first we'll deal with our own security...so that our busses dont blow up....in the meantime we'll be watching gaza to see how the PA develops a secure and working society...

and then and only then will we have "on what to talk about.

with our busses blowing up, or missles coming down on us, or a failed palestenian gaza society, there really isnt a whole lot to talk about.

[Englander]

3. West Bank conflict brews after Gaza

By Anne Barnard, Globe Staff | October 9, 2005

JERUSALEM -- Among the dry, yellow hilltops east of Jerusalem, a new Israeli regional police station will soon be built, the first construction on a swath of land that the Israeli government has long wanted to cover with Jewish settlements to solidify its grip on the heart of the West Bank

The project is also one small part of Israel's plan to strengthen control of the eastern flank of Jerusalem and the large settlement blocs clustered at the center of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, a goal Israeli officials vowed to pursue even as they pulled settlers out of the Gaza Strip in August.

A series of other land-planning moves that Israel has made over the past two months -- largely unheralded as world attention focused on the Gaza withdrawal -- seems to bear out that strategy. Such steps help explain why many Palestinians see the withdrawal less as a milestone of liberation than as Israel's first step toward cementing dominion over East Jerusalem and its West Bank surroundings, areas Palestinians want for the capital and economic center of a future state.

The Israeli government views the settlements around Jerusalem as de facto Israeli territory that should remain in place to preserve security and Israeli control of the city. Palestinians and their international advisers say that a future Palestinian state will be crippled if it can't follow a natural growth pattern expanding outward from Jerusalem, which because of tourism is projected to provide nearly half of a future state's economy.

More at;
The Boston Globe

[pelsar]

4. it never stopped

the settlements have always been "growing"...nothing new there...the gaza withdrawl had nothing to do with the settlements

i dont get it..because of gaz all of a sudden "nobody sees the settlment growth?

btw very few of the israelis from gaza have moved to the westbank....

[bloom]

6. The settlements are growing faster...

"In parallel, new building on Jewish settlements during the first quarter of this year rose by 83% on the same period in 2004. About 4,000 homes are under construction in Israel's West Bank colonies, with thousands more homes approved in the Ariel and Maale Adumim blocks that penetrate deep into the occupied territories. The total number of settlers has risen again this year with an estimated 14,000 moving to the West Bank, compared with 8,500 forced to leave Gaza.

Israel is also continuing to expand the amount of territory it intends to retain. In July alone, it seized more land in the West Bank than it surrendered in Gaza: it withdrew from about 19 square miles of territory while sealing off 23 sq miles of the West Bank around Maale Adumim.

Israel's strategy is to "strengthen the control over areas which will constitute an inseparable part of the state of Israel", the prime minister said after the Gaza pullout.

Last month, he told a meeting of his Likud party allies that it was important to expand the settlements without drawing the world's attention. "There's no need to talk. We need to build, and we're building without talking," he said. A few days later, one of the prime minister's senior advisors, Eyal Arad, publicly advocated "a strategy of unilaterally determining the permanent borders of the state of Israel".

The greatest impact of recent Israeli actions has been in and around Jerusalem, as Israel stepped up construction of the wall along the most controversial part of its route.

"What we are seeing is an acceleration of construction of the barrier," said David Shearer, head of the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Jerusalem."

[ProgressiveMuslim]

5. Saying one thing...

and doing the opposite on the ground.

Sound familiar?