Some Relative Good News From Washington

NYTimes reports that:

Settlements in West Bank

Are Clouding Peace Talks

From the story:-

...on a richly choreographed day of diplomacy, filled with solemn promises to tackle the tough issues dividing them, the Israeli and Palestinian leaders did not confront the one issue that could sink these talks in three weeks: whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will extend a moratorium on the construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

The Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, has threatened to walk out of the negotiations if Israel does not extend the moratorium beyond September. But officials said the two leaders barely broached the topic during three hours of talks, which covered the gamut of issues that have divided Israel and the Palestinians for decades.

Instead, Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Abbas focused on mechanics, agreeing to aim for a “framework agreement” that resolves the core issues in carving out a Palestinian state from the Israeli-occupied territory on the West Bank. The fine points of a treaty would be worked out after that.

...Analysts said they were encouraged by the goal of a “framework agreement,” which could be a practical vehicle for both sides to resolve vexing “final status” issues: borders, security, the political status of Jerusalem, settlements and the rights of Palestinian refugees.

"Analysts"?

Like

“They’ve set for themselves an achievable objective in a one-year time frame,” said Martin S. Indyk, a former American ambassador to Israel and Middle East peace negotiator. “A comprehensive agreement would have been unrealistic with that kind of timetable.”

Analyst? He's a player.

And some direct update?

Here:-

...“The climate, and atmosphere, was positive and serious and down to business,” said Nabil Shaath, foreign relations commissioner of Mr. Abbas’s Fatah Party, who is negotiating for the Palestinians.

“But the cloud is still there,” he added. “The Israelis gave absolutely no hopeful signs that they will continue the moratorium. And in our point of view, that is the litmus test for the Israelis.”

On Wednesday, officials said, President Obama spoke bluntly to Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Abbas at the White House, urging them not to allow the impasse to scotch the talks. But Mr. Netanyahu has not offered any hint of a compromise, and analysts say he is hemmed in by his right-leaning coalition, which could splinter if he simply extended the moratorium.

The more likely outcome, officials said, is a compromise in which Israel would agree to limit settlements, but exempt West Bank areas that are certain to remain part of Israel under a peace deal. It could also offer a limited extension, based on agreeing on the borders of a Palestinian state.

Israeli officials declined to discuss the issue of settlements but said the overall tenor of the talks was “good and constructive.” Citing the killings of four Israeli settlers in the West Bank this week, Mr. Netanyahu said security would have to be a critical theme of the talks. He said that the rise of Iran, and its support of militant groups, had radically altered the landscape for peace talks...

I am waiting to hear any indication at all that this phrase, "West Bank areas that are certain to remain part of Israel under a peace deal", is acceptable to Abbas.


_______________


UPDATE

A senior Palestinian source told Haaretz that the American administration renewed its pressure on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to stay in direct negotiations with Israel, even if some construction in the settlements resumes after the end of the current moratorium. The source warned that Abbas would not be able to agree to a renewal of construction and will be forced to withdraw from the talks.

According to the source, a Palestinian okay to the renewal of construction just as direct talks are resumed is politically impossible...

Abbas would not be able to give up Palestinian sovereignty in East Jerusalem and especially the Temple Mount, but large Jewish neighborhoods would be retained by Israel. If this much is achieved, Abbas will be able to agree that the refugee issue will be resolved primarily within the borders of the new Palestinian state, with only a few tens of thousands receiving Israeli citizenship as a humanitarian gesture.

- - -

Threats Should Be Met With Threats

New Pal. threat:-

The Palestinians will pull out of direct peace talks due to start with Israel next month if the Israeli government announces new settlement building, the chief Palestinian negotiator said on Friday.

Saeb Erekat said any new Israeli building work on lands the Palestinians seek for a state would cause the Palestinians to withdraw from talks which the United States is set to mediate.

"If the Israeli government decides to announce new tenders on Sept. 26, then we won't be able to continue with the talks," Erekat said after a meeting of the Palestine Liberation Organisation's executive committee in Ramallah.

I think Israel should reply with its own "threat":

if the Pal. negotiating position is that no Jews can dwell in the proposed new state called "Palestine", then (a) no talks; (b) Israel will reconsider the residency of Arabs in Israel.


- - -

Republican Contenders Like Jewish Communities in Yesha

Noam Neusner, the principal of Neusner Communications, LLC, and who served as a speechwriter and Jewish liaison for President George W. Bush, explains:

Why Palin and Huckabee Dig Settlements

...In recent months, however, a new issue has emerged with which Republican contenders are trying to distinguish themselves: West Bank settlements...Mike Huckabee made a high-profile visit to the West Bank...Sarah Palin offered a more curious rationale for settlement expansion: “That population of Israel is going to grow. More and more Jewish people will be flocking to Israel in the days and weeks and months ahead. And I don’t think that the Obama administration has any right to tell Israel that the Jewish settlements cannot expand.”

...Rep. Eric Cantor, has called the settlement issue “a distraction” from the bigger threat posed by Iran. “The status of the settlement blocks is something to be resolved in future agreements; it is not something we should begin pressuring Israel on now, when there really have not been adequate steps taken by the Arab states and the Palestinians,” Cantor told The Jerusalem Post.

So what explains the zeal on settlements from Huckabee and Palin?

...their focus on settlements could also be seen as a calculated political move to distinguish themselves from the Republican pack....And the settlement issue, of course, has particular appeal to Christian conservatives who believe God gave Israel to the Jewish people. Saying that settlements are Israel’s right is a way of telling Christian Zionists, “I’m with you.”

...So what’s driving Palin and Huckabee — conviction or political expediency? The answer is probably at least a bit of both. I don’t doubt that they have both arrived at their positions on settlements in good faith, though it’s unlikely they have devoted serious study to 42 years of American foreign policy on the issue. And, in any case, they likely see the settlement issue as a cost-free way of scoring political points against an incumbent president who is seen by many as the least friendly president toward Israel since Jimmy Carter...

Encouraging

Despite the rest of this article, I especially enjoyed this part:

Despite the international clamour over settlements in the West Bank, there seems to be no shortage of ideologically motivated Israelis and new immigrants aspiring to make a home there.

According to the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, the settler population in the West Bank rose 5 per cent last year to 289,600 people, compared with population growth of 1.8 per cent in Israel last year.

BBC Does a Peace Now Flyover-like

Here.

Ever See an "Illegal Home"?

Homes in illegal Israeli settlements for sale at London expo

Israeli companies are using UK property shows to sell housing in illegal Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, Guardian Unlimited can reveal. At the Israel Property Exhibition at Brent town hall, North London last Sunday, one company, Anglo-Saxon Real Estate, was offering for sale properties in Maale Adumim and Maccabim. Both West Bank settlements lie on the Palestinian side of the so-called green line, the pre-1967 boundary and often cited as the border between Israel and a future Palestinian state.

...Maale Adumim forms part of the Israelis' controversial E1 plan, which would see the building of thousands of housing units as well as industrial and tourism zones to connect the settlement with Jerusalem.

...In answer to a parliamentary question in June, Howells said: "The UK consistently makes clear its view that settlements are illegal under international law and that settlement activity is an obstacle to peace." He added: "We are concerned by reports of Israeli construction work at El. The continuing process of establishing settlements is encircling east Jerusalem and breaking up Palestinian territorial contiguity throughout the West Bank.

And Gavin has an opinion:

"These practices fuel Palestinian anger, threaten to cut east Jerusalem off from the West Bank and undermine the prospect for a viable Palestinian state."
Gavin Gross, director of public affairs at the Zionist Federation, which organised the Brent fair, said: "While the promotion or sale of houses beyond Israel's green line is a contentious subject for some, it is not prohibited in Britain." He said Anglo-Saxon was just one of a number of companies at the fair and other exhibitors were not selling properties in the West Bank. Properties in illegal settlements were also on offer at a fair at Finchley synagogue, in North London, last month. The poster advertising the exhibition called on investors to "strengthen your portfolio and Israel's future".

Well, Well, Will the State Have to Own Up and Pay Up?

Seems a new track is being taken in the legal battle to live in Yesha.

Yesterday, the Hebron community launched a libel charge against Peace Now and this developed is reported on:-

The residents of Hersha, a settlement outpost in the West Bank, has asked the High Court of Justice to order the state to compensate them if they are evicted from their homes. Construction there has received state aid for the past 10 years. The settlers, represented by attorney Yaakov Weinrot, presented an alternative to the demolition: the legalization of the settlement and the granting of building permits.

...Hersha residents presented evidence that the state aided their outpost from 1995 until 2004. "The State of Israel has taken an active role in establishing the outpost through an array of branches and authorities," they wrote. "The families and the settlement as a whole have taken this into account when planning their actions."

The settlers said that in 1999, the Housing Ministry transferred NIS 600,000 for infrastructure construction. An additional NIS 500,000 was transferred in 2001 for the construction of a community center and a day-care center. Another NIS 650,000 was transferred in 2002. Moreover, in 2004, the Housing Ministry prepared a zoning plan for the community that included schools, and the state has even built a meteorological survey station on the premises.

...They maintain the state has only recently changed its tone, leaning toward demolishing the settlement "now that times have changed." They also maintain that demolishing the settlement, in light of the government's past support, would be illegal and unreasonable.

And this, too:-

Peace Now's settlement monitoring coordinator, Dror Etkes, told Haaretz that the settlers' compensation claims were justified. "If their homes are demolished, the state should indeed compensate them for its two-faced approach," Etkes explained.

Will it be too expensive for the state to destroy?

For The Record - AMANA Housing Sell

The advert that appeared in the Jewish Press concerning the partnership projected of American jews and the revenant Jews in Yesha:-

Homes Hounded

N.J. Israelis, Pro-Palestinians Protest West Bank Home Sales

American Jews on Sunday were given information on how to buy homes on the West Bank, an event the organizer promoted as a way to help Jewish settlers.

The effort has drawn rebukes from an Israeli group as well as pro-Palestinian organizations, who say such efforts undermine international peace efforts. Some of their members protested outside the meeting, held at an Orthodox synagogue in Teaneck, Congregation B'nai Yeshurun.

The opposition groups believe the gathering represented the first time West Bank homes have been offered for sale in the United States.

They also questioned whether the sale of what they consider illegally occupied lands violates anti-discrimination laws, but a New Jersey official has said state and federal authorities have no jurisdiction on overseas property.

The sales pitch was organized by the Amana Settlement Movement, a group based in Israel.

Many Orthodox Jews believe that Jews have a right to settle on lands that are part of the biblical land of Israel.

Opposition groups, however, contend that increased settlement damages efforts to create a Palestinian state, a goal backed by the U.S. government.

"Every settler who is added to the West Bank makes the realization of President Bush's vision of a two-state solution more difficult," Ori Nir, a spokesman for Americans for Peace Now, the sister organization of Israel's largest peace group, Peace Now, said last week.

Single-family homes begin at $120,000, the letters said. American Jews were asked to buy a home and then rent it to settlers for about $250 a month.