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April 14, 2005
Israel: stirring the pot
Things look bad in Israel, due to the settler movement's response to Israel's slow withdrawal from the Gaza strip. That movement is hostile to 'full autonomy' for the Palestinians, or 'self rule,' or 'self government.' Having failed to convince the Knesset to block Israel's withdrawal from Gaza, the settler movement is taking to the streets to foster ethnic/religious conflict around the mosques of the Temple Mount.
Israel has said that it will continue with further West Bank settlement growth, despite pressure from President George W. Bush not to allow it to happen because it would be in violation of the internationally backed "road map" peace plan. Israel intends to add 3,650 homes to the West Bank's largest settlement, Maaleh Adumim, which would cut off Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank. Doesn't this expansion undermine the possibility of a viable Palestinian state?
In Australia the Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) finally acknowledges the settler movement's actions in its latest Review. That would have to be a first, would it not?
However, what is not acknowledged by The Review is that successive Israeli governments did not establish the 200 or so settlements because of security from terrorism. These and the massive infrastructure that links the settlement blocs irreversibly into Israel were constructed as part of a program of expansion.
We can presume that the AIJAC, being part of the Israeli Right, does not oppose settlement expansion by the Jewish state.
Posted by Gary Sauer-Thompson at April 14, 2005 11:55 AM
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