Israel defies freeze on illegal settlements
I really wonder sometimes whether Ehud Olmert has any plan at all regarding how he wants to proceed with George Bush's road map for the Middle East.
Leaving aside the fact that this kind of settlement building is illegal under international law, the danger for Israel is that we are approaching a critical point where, the more land she takes, the less likely it is that a two state solution remains a viable possibility.Israel approved plans yesterday to build 330 new homes in a suburban West Bank settlement north of Jerusalem. The move was denounced by the Palestinian Authority as "a slap in the face of the peace process" and called on the Quartet of the United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia to "act to get Israel to revoke the decision".
Saeb Erakat, the Palestinians' chief negotiator, said: "This is a provocative action by Israel that demonstrates its intention of further strengthening illegal occupation and colonisation of Palestinian territory."
He branded the timing of the decision as "outrageous" because it came on the eve of American-Israeli-Palestinian talks to assess the two sides' performance under the international road map for peace. Expansion of settlements is supposed to be frozen under the terms of the peace process. The settlements, illegal under international law, already account for nearly 40 per cent of West Bank territory. The UN warned recently that they are making the achievement of an eventual two state solution elusive.
Once that point is reached the Palestinians will stop asking for a two state solution and will start to ask for citizenship. Should the Palestinians ever reach that point then Israel will have no-one to blame but herself and she will have very few options regarding how to proceed. And none of them are good ones.
She can either agree and watch Israel disappear, she can ethnically cleanse the Palestinians from the area - which the world would find utterly unacceptable - or she can try to stagger on with her quasi-Apartheid system of controlling millions of people's lives whilst denying them any form of citizenship. Those are the only options on the table should the Palestinians decide that a two state solution is simply no longer viable.
One also wonders how George Bush and Condaleezza Rice react to such an Israeli announcement, because it's a slap in the face to both of them at the very time when they are putting so much of their credibility into the failing Bush Road Map for the Middle East.
Only last week Rice was attempting to restart the peace talks, and Abbas was refusing. After the dreadful events in Jerusalem there were reports that Abbas was having a rethink and that he was hinting that he would return to the talks.
The timing of Israel's announcement simply couldn't come at a worse moment.
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