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Peace Process

Sharon admits US settlement pledge vague


By Jerusalem Newswire Editorial Staff
April 26, 2005

US President George W. Bush’s commitment to recognizing the reality of Jewish life in Judea and Samaria is rather vague, admitted Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in a pre-Passover interview with a right-wing Israeli newspaper.

Sharon told Makor Rishon that what constitutes a “large population center” in understandings between Israel and Washington has yet to be defined.

"With regards to settlement blocs - people claim against me that I did not set which blocs, or the sizes of the blocs, and thus I wish to clarify:it is not by chance that I have not set the size of the blocs. No one knows how things will develop,” the prime minister said.

Sharon has on several occasions lauded as “historic” Bush’s alleged commitment to back continued Israeli sovereignty over major Jewish settlements as part of any peace agreement with the PLO.

But analysts have repeatedly noted that Washington sees no difference between individual Jewish settlements scattered throughout Judea and Samaria and Jewish neighborhoods in eastern Jerusalem.

Dr. Aaron Lerner of Independent Media Review and Analysis believes Bush’s “major population centers” are the Ramat Eshkol, French Hill and other neighborhoods of the capital, and not the settlements of Ma’aleh Adumim, Ariel and Gush Etzion, as Sharon has convinced many Israelis.

Lerner explained earlier in the year that Bush’s likely strategy is to gain PLO acceptance of Jewish neighborhoods in eastern Jerusalem, which cannot reasonably be removed, in return for Israel’s surrender of 100 percent of all settlements in Judea and Samaria.

Turning to the planned withdrawal from Gaza, Sharon insisted that “in no plan in the past, in no plan, was it said that we would remain in the Gaza Strip” forever.

Makor Rishon reporters reminded the prime minister that when the Gaza community of Kfar Darom was established in 1989, he promised the Jewish residents they would remain there forever.

When asked whether or not he had been serious about his commitment to Jewish rights throughout the biblical land of Israel, Sharon replied, “Look. It isn't that I have changed, the conditions have changed.”

Gaza’s Jewish residents have filed a petition against the government with the High Court claiming they were made to believe their presence in the coastal strip was permanent. It was under that belief that the settlers sacrificed so much to establish strong, prosperous and thriving communities.

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