By Jerusalem Newswire Editorial Staff
Aug 06, 2004
One of Ariel Sharon’s primary justifications to the Israeli people for conducting a retreat from Gaza has been shattered by a week of intense US pressure for Israel to halt construction of 600 new homes in the largest Samarian Jewish community.
For months the prime minister insisted that by uprooting the Jews of Gaza and northern Samaria, Israel would gain the Bush Administration’s support in strengthening major settlement blocs in Judea and southern parts of Samaria.
He even interpreted a letter from President George W. Bush to mean the American was committed to just such a concept, and said it marked Israel’s greatest achievement in regards to its relationship with the US.
But for days Washington has leveled heavy criticism at Israel for authorizing a new neighborhood in the Jerusalem suburb of Ma’aleh Adumim – a “West Bank settlement” with a population of roughly 30,000 people.
Dr. Aaron Lerner of the Independent Media Review and Analysis (IMRA) organization noted that “what President Bush actually said was that the settlements blocs are a bargaining chip of substance.”
In Bush’s estimation these large settlements “should be worth something at the negotiating table so that it can be expected that Israel may be able to trade them for less than a return to the '67 line,” Lerner wrote.
“Given that the '67 line goes through Jerusalem - with such long established…neighborhoods as French Hill and Ramat Eshkol on the "wrong side" of the Green Line - President Bush's remarks can be taken to mean no more than that he expects that in return” for handing over the large settlement blocs “Israel might be able to hold onto French Hill and Ramat Eshkol in a final deal with the Palestinians.”
According to Ha’aretz , the Bush Administration also feels “frustration and bitterness” over the slow pace at which Israel is uprooting several sparsely populated and empty settler outposts it promised to remove under the Road Map.
Zionist Organization of America President Morton A. Klein responded by saying it was “incredible that the administration remains silent while the Palestinian Authority ignores its obligations to arrest and disarm terrorists.”
“The obstacle to peace is the PA 's terrorist behavior, not these scattered outposts on empty land,” he added.