Has Washington guaranteed the settlement blocs?

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By Ryan Jones
September 13, 2005

For more than a year Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told Israelis his plan to uproot the Jews of Gaza and northern Samaria had won Israel unprecedented support from Washington to retain sovereignty over major Jewish settlement blocs in Judea and Samaria.

As proof Sharon pointed to an April 2004 letter from US President George W. Bush, in which the American stated it would be unrealistic to expect an Israeli withdrawal to its 1949 borders.

But ever since then, US officials, including Bush himself, have pointed out the erroneous Israeli interpretation of the letter, insisting no such final status decisions would be made without the consent of the ?Palestinians.?

Now that the ?disengagement? is complete, Sharon seemed to backtrack on his previous assertion in an interview with The Washington Post last week.

Sharon told the Post's Lally Weymouth that ?even now? Israel is building in and solidifying its hold over these settlement blocs, insisting ?these areas are going to be part of [sovereign] Israel.?

Asked about the Bush Administration's reaction, Sharon said he doesn't ?think they'll be too happy? about the construction, and admitted, ?We don't have an agreement with the United States about this.?

Weymouth questioned why Sharon had gone through with the disengagement in the apparent absence of lasting diplomatic payback.

In response Sharon echoed left-wing claims of a looming Arab ?demographic threat? if Israel did not relinquish Judea, Samaria and Gaza (Yesha).

That threat was proven false in a recent study showing that rather than the four million Arabs regularly spoken about in Yesha, only 2.4 million actually live there.

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