Israel should defy US on settlement blocs-minister
Reuters
Date: 09-06-05
By Dan Williams
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel should build up Jewish settlement blocs in the occupied West Bank in defiance of U.S. misgivings at a move contravening the "road map" to Palestinian statehood, a senior Israeli cabinet minister said on Tuesday.
Education Minister Limor Livnat's remarks appeared to back Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's drive to settle more Jews in the West Bank after quitting the Gaza Strip last month.
"I'll say this clearly: We are a sovereign nation. The great United States is our friend, but there are times when we have to say, even to the United States, that we will act in accordance with our interests," Livnat told Israel Radio.
"We should demand of the Americans that they do not pressure us on this matter," she said. Washington, Israel's closest ally supplying $2.8 billion in aid each year, .
Palestinians welcomed the Gaza pullout but they are angry at Sharon's insistence Israel hold onto settlements in West Bank lands occupied along with Gaza in the 1967 Middle East war.
ARIEL
Sharon's office said on Monday it had approved 117 new homes for the West Bank settlement of Ariel, the latest project to run counter to the road map's call for a freeze on Israeli construction in occupied land the Palestinians want for a state.
A controversial bid to link a major settlement to Jerusalem was put on hold following U.S. pressure. But Sharon faces pressures in his ruling Likud party to press ahead with settlement building.
Likud hardliners saw his Gaza pullout as a betrayal of Jewish claims on biblical land and a reward for Palestinian violence. His chief party rival, Benjamin Netanyahu, has championed settlement expansion.
Washington hopes the Gaza withdrawal, which Sharon cast as "disengagement" from conflict, will kick-start talks on implementing a road map stalled by non-compliance by both sides.
Under the plan, Palestinians must crack down on militants spearheading a 4 1/2-year-old revolt against Israel.
But Palestinians say this would risk civil war, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has instead coaxed militants into a seven-month-old ceasefire and worked to incorporate the gunmen in his security forces.
"WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY"
Livnat called the removal of Gaza's 21 settlements a "window of opportunity" to build in and around West Bank blocs -- especially in the so-called E1 tract connecting Maale Adumim settlement to Jerusalem.
She noted that President Bush has said Israel can expect to keep West Bank settlement blocs under any final accord with the Palestinians.
"Implicit in this is the necessity and acceptability of building up the settlement blocs, though this may not have been said explicitly by the U.S. administration," Livnat said.
Israel captured East Jerusalem, along with the West Bank and Gaza, in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. The E1 project in what is now empty desert is meant to cement Israel's claim to Jerusalem as its indivisible capital, not recognised internationally.
Vice Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said last week that the E1 project was shelved in light of U.S. opposition, but that Israel was determined to resume it and would seek its ally's approval.
The World Court has said Israel's settlements are illegal. Israel disputes this.
The Likud split has stirred speculation that Sharon could bring forward elections scheduled for November 2006.
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