hamas rejects new palestinian prime minister, page-20

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Israel to ‘neutralise’ Blair over US deal on Palestine

By Philip Jacobson

(Filed: 09/03/2003)

Israel’s new government is drawing up detailed plans to undermine any attempt by Tony Blair to accelerate the creation of a Palestinian state after the anticipated defeat of Saddam Hussein.

Israeli officials say that their campaign will seek to "neutralise" any pressure that Mr Blair is expected to put on Washington to resolve the increasingly bloody Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a British priority in return for the Prime Minister’s support over a war with Iraq.

Yesterday, in a response to the bus bombing that killed 15 people in Haifa last Wednesday, Israel killed the top commander of Hamas’s military wing and three other militants in a helicopter missile strike on their car in the Gaza Strip.

Ibrahim al-Maqadma, 51, was a founder of the militant Islamic group, which has vowed to launch revenge attacks and threatened to kill senior Israeli politicians.

Hours after the missile strike, the Palestine Liberation Organisation’s ruling council approved the nomination by its president, Yasser Arafat, of Mahmoud Abbas, a senior official, to the office of prime minister.
Last week, however, Ariel Sharon made clear at the first meeting of his new security cabinet that Israel will resist any specific commitment to the "road map" for a comprehensive Middle East peace settlement envisaged by Britain and the Bush administration.

The so-called "road map" has been drawn up by diplomats from the US, the United Nations, Russia and the European Union. It is supposed to lead to a peace settlement that would see a Palestinian state side by side with a secure Israel in three years’ time.

"Sharon believes that the road map as it stands is tainted by the influence of the European Union, which he holds in utter contempt," said a political official.

"[Ariel Sharon] is convinced that Washington is only paying lip service to the EU’s views and can be persuaded to come round to his position if Mr Blair can only be sidelined," he added.

Mr Sharon will seek to convince Washington that Israel - an equally loyal ally - deserves a more central role than the EU in shaping crucial contours of the "road map". According to Israeli officials, he believes that in diplomatic circles any attack on the EU will be correctly perceived as an attack on Mr Blair.

To Israel’s relief, the Americans responded coolly to a recent visit by Lord Levy, Mr Blair’s special envoy to the Middle East, who urged the Bush administration to move ahead with publishing proposals for a settlement.

Last week, under the headline "Sharon vs Blair", the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz reported that "the British got the impression that [they] would have to wait until after the war".

Although the casualties resulting from Israeli incursions into the West Bank and Gaza Strip are worrying the Bush administration, Mr Sharon argues that such operations must continue in the name of the wider war on terror.

In an effort to underline the extent of the threat that Israel faces from terrorism, the army high command reported that security forces have thwarted 36 suicide missions since late last year, a reflection of improved intelligence flowing from Islamic militant organisations such as Hamas.

Nonetheless, there is no shortage of Palestinian youths volunteering for martyrdom. And as war with Iraq draws closer, the numbers are likely to increase.

Israel has emphasised the importance of sustaining military pressure on the occupied territories with a request for a $4 billion (£2.6 billion) special aid package from America to cover the cost of everything from gas masks to improved anti-missile defences.

American officials have indicated, however, that the Bush administration is reluctant to underwrite "needs unrelated to the war in Iraq".

Israel’s finance minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, may have to settle for half the amount, though America is likely to provide another $8 million in loan guarantees to sweeten the deal.
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Tuesday, March 11, 2003

B'Tselem: Settlements control 42% of West Bank

By Nadav Shragai, Ha'aretz Correspondent

Only 1.7 percent of the territory of the West Bank is built-up settlement area, while the territory "controlled by the settlements" amounts to 41.9 percent of the West Bank, according to a report published yesterday by B'Tselem, the Israeli information center for human rights in the territories.

The report - entitled "Land Grab: Israel's Settlement Policy in the West Bank" and compiled by researcher Yehezkel Lein - notes that 6.8 percent of the West Bank is area within the boundaries of the national outline plan for the Jewish settlement enterprise, while a further 35.1 percent is land that falls under the jurisdiction of the Jewish local and regional councils, beyond the borders of the outline plan.

The report divides the West Bank into four lengthwise strips.

The Eastern strip, which includes the Jordan Valley, the shores of the Dead Sea and eastern slopes of the West Bank ridge, is home to 5,400 Jewish settlers. The municipal boundaries of this strip encompass some 76,000 dunams, yet the areas under the jurisdiction of the regional councils that are not included within the municipal boundaries total some 1.2 million dunams.

Some 34,000 settlers live in the Mountain strip. The municipal boundaries of the settlements in this strip encompass 62,000 dunams, but another 409,000 dunams that are not a part of any particular settlement fall under the jurisdictions of the area's four regional councils.

The Western Hills strip stretches, from north to south, across an area 10-20 kilometers wide between the western border of the Mountain strip and the Green Line. Around 85,000 settlers live in this area, within municipal boundaries encompassing 110,000 dunams. A further 264,000 dunams come under the jurisdictions of the three regional councils in the strip.

The settlements in the Jerusalem metropolis, which, according to B'Tselem, includes the city's new neighborhoods, are home to 247,000 individuals, within municipal boundaries encompassing 130,000 dunams. Another 90,000 dunams fall under the authority of the two regional councils in this strip.

B'Tselem chairman Prof. Anat Biletzki yesterday told a news conference the manner in which the settlements and their jurisdictions were laid out prevented any possibility of creating a territorial continuum between Palestinian cities and towns. The layout, she added, markedly reduced the economic, and particularly agricultural, development potential of the Palestinians.

In the Eastern strip, Biletzki said, the Palestinians were even denied the use of a significant portion of the water resources. Biletzki and other organization officials
yesterday called for all settlements to be dismantled the residents financially compensated.

In the chapter of the report on incentives to move to the settlements, the report notes that "most of the settlements in the West Bank are defined as National Priority Zones A or B, and, as such, the settlers and other Israeli citizens who work in the settlements or have invested in them are entitled to significant economic benefits."

For example, in 2000, Jewish local councils in the West Bank received grants from the government averaging 65 percent more than those received by their counterparts inside Israel. Settlement regional councils received grants averaging 165 percent more than their counterparts in Israel, the report notes.

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It’s a grab for land; its as simple as that.