Jewish Settlements

JERUSALEM -- The Israeli government's freeze on Jewish settlements is seeming more like just a cool chill.As the new government of Yitzhak Rabin sorts out the massive building program of its predecessor, it has decided to complete more than half the construction under way in the occupied territories.The result will be enough new homes to increase the Jewish population in the Arab territories by nearly 50 percent, if the buildings are completed and filled.When they realized the numbers yesterday, liberal members of Mr. Rabin's government cried foul.

The Sun's editorial, "Peace is remote in the Mideast" (Dec. 28), states, among other things: "... Israel is continuing to expand settlements at a rate that will soon render the whole issue moot because eventually there won't be enough land left to create a viable Palestinian state. " Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that the end of the freeze on construction in existing settlements does not mean an expansion of the area encompassed by those communities. New building is overwhelmingly what contractors here call "in-fill," construction on unused land or additions to existing structures inside current neighborhoods or subdivisions.

AL-KHADER, Israeli-Occupied West Bank -- The growl of bulldozers on a rocky, thorn-filled hilltop yesterday announced a new round of conflict over the expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank.Israeli soldiers and police arrested 45 Palestinians and sympathetic Israelis who tried to block the bulldozers from carving out a new Jewish neighborhood of 500 houses near Bethlehem.The confrontation brought calls by Palestinians for an end to their negotiations with Israel until Israel stops adding to Jewish settlements.

As the Obama administration moves to transform Palestinian arguments about Israeli settlements into U.S. policy, an examination of the facts underlying these issues is appropriate. There may be no better place to begin than the swimming pool at Rimonim, a Jewish settlement in the heart of the West Bank. The scene is a familiar one. Families picnicking together. Mothers yelling at children to be careful. Young children calling out to moms to watch them do dangerous things. But it is the view from the hilltop pool that is striking.

KHAN YUNIS, Gaza Strip - Israel launched the biggest ground assault of its seven-month conflict with the Palestinians late Tuesday, moving tanks and bulldozers from the coast to demolish up to 31 refugee camp homes in retaliation for a weeklong barrage of mortar attacks that have terrorized Jewish settlers in the Gaza Strip. Despite the assault, which sent residents fleeing and brought Palestinian gunmen into the streets and alleys, Gaza's "mortar war" resumed early last evening, with four shells landing on Israeli settlements, prompting return fire from Israeli tanks.

JERUSALEM -- Ehud Olmert's centrist Kadima party won the largest number of seats yesterday in Israel's parliamentary elections, ensuring that Olmert will become prime minister and be able to pursue his plan to give up some Jewish settlements in the West Bank and establish the country's permanent borders. Kadima's victory was muted by the party's winning fewer seats than polls had projected. But it broke the monopoly on leadership held since the country's founding by the center-left Labor Party and its predecessors, and by the right-wing Likud, the party Olmert left to join Kadima.

JERUSALEM - Israeli forces swept into the West Bank city of Tulkarem yesterday, killing a Palestinian police officer in a gunfight and arresting five suspected members of Islamic Jihad after the militant group killed four Israelis in a suicide bombing Tuesday, the army and Palestinians said. Pressing ahead with preparations for a withdrawal next month from the Gaza Strip, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon signed an order closing Jewish settlements there to nonresidents in an effort to block entry by protesters who have vowed to resist the pullout.

JERUSALEM -- Israel will move immediately to abandon more Jewish settlements in the West Bank if Ehud Olmert, the interim prime minister, and his Kadima party win election this month, a party leader said yesterday. Israeli troops would remain after civilians were removed from isolated Jewish settlements and resettled, said Avi Dichter, a former chief of the Shin Bet security service and now a leading member of Kadima. Dichter's comments to Israel Radio reinforced expectations that a Kadima government without Prime Minister Ariel Sharon would accelerate the unilateral withdrawal from the West Bank, which Sharon began last summer, along with a pullout from the Gaza Strip.

JERUSALEM - Israel's parliament approved a plan last night to evacuate all Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and several in the West Bank, the first time Israeli lawmakers have voted to relinquish land that Palestinians want for an independent state. The vote, 67-45 in favor of the withdrawal proposed by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, came after 17 hours of often-harsh debate as thousands of protesters, pro and con, rallied outside the parliament building, ringed by heavily armed police.

JERUSALEM -- The Israeli authorities have approved plans to build nearly 4,000 homes in Jewish settlements in the West Bank, putting into practice a government decision to end restrictions on expanding settlements there and in the Gaza Strip.Palestinians say the land allotted for the new buildings was confiscated from neighboring Arab villages.But the settlers assert that it was bought by Jews.Pub Date: 9/20/96

Yesterday, the Israeli and Palestinian leaders met at the White House in a symbolic first session of what is supposed to be a yearlong series of negotiations toward a final settlement in the Middle East. It was the first fruit of Tuesday's Annapolis summit, and though there may not have been much to it, there is at least the promise of a more substantial harvest down the road. But if Annapolis turns out to have been nothing more than an end-of-term gambit by President Bush, it will come to nothing.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- When Israel evacuated its settlements in the Gaza Strip one year ago, Ayed Abu Ramadan dreamed that Gaza's new independence would fuel an economic revival. Abu Ramadan led a Palestinian project that used greenhouses left by departing Jewish settlers to grow cherry tomatoes, strawberries and peppers for export to European markets. The government project, which employed more than 4,000 Palestinians, was expected to inject $20 million into Gaza's battered economy.

ELON MOREH, West Bank -- On a hilltop overlooking the Palestinian city of Nablus, residents of this Jewish settlement wept and prayed yesterday at a memorial service for four residents killed by Palestinians in 2002, and in a sense, over Israeli voters' decision this week to tell Jewish settlers to abandon their homes. On Tuesday, Israelis voted into office the Kadima party, whose chief promise is to evacuate settlements such as this one. At yesterday's memorial service, the residents of Elon Moreh promised to honor the dead by never leaving.

JERUSALEM -- Ehud Olmert's centrist Kadima party won the largest number of seats yesterday in Israel's parliamentary elections, ensuring that Olmert will become prime minister and be able to pursue his plan to give up some Jewish settlements in the West Bank and establish the country's permanent borders. Kadima's victory was muted by the party's winning fewer seats than polls had projected. But it broke the monopoly on leadership held since the country's founding by the center-left Labor Party and its predecessors, and by the right-wing Likud, the party Olmert left to join Kadima.

JERUSALEM -- Israel will move immediately to abandon more Jewish settlements in the West Bank if Ehud Olmert, the interim prime minister, and his Kadima party win election this month, a party leader said yesterday. Israeli troops would remain after civilians were removed from isolated Jewish settlements and resettled, said Avi Dichter, a former chief of the Shin Bet security service and now a leading member of Kadima. Dichter's comments to Israel Radio reinforced expectations that a Kadima government without Prime Minister Ariel Sharon would accelerate the unilateral withdrawal from the West Bank, which Sharon began last summer, along with a pullout from the Gaza Strip.

PHILADELPHIA -- As Ariel Sharon lies ill, many wonder how his successor will handle the Palestinian question. One of the great ironies of Mr. Sharon's career is that he became identified as the best hope for a solution to the Palestinian conflict. He was demonized by Arabs and he disdained negotiations with the Palestinians. But he also withdrew troops and Jewish settlements unilaterally from the Gaza Strip. The Bush administration let him guide its policy on the peace process, hoping he would make further withdrawals from the West Bank.

JERUSALEM - Blocking roads and stopping buses, Israeli police and soldiers thwarted a march yesterday by tens of thousands of opponents of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to evacuate Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip. Israeli demonstrators had hoped to reach Jewish settlements in Gaza, flooding the communities with thousands of new residents and forcing the government to cancel or delay the withdrawal. But police declared the demonstration illegal before it began, barring buses from taking marchers to the rally and preventing their numbers from growing.

JERUSALEM -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Cabinet approved in principle yesterday a plan to give the Palestinians more West Bank rural land to control.But the Cabinet did not set a timetable for the removal of Israeli troops from areas of the occupied territories or define its scope -- two key issues for Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and his people. It also made the pullouts conditional on Palestinians containing terrorism more effectively.Palestinian officials, who expect to gain control of 20 percent to 25 percent of the West Bank through the redeployment of Israeli troops, had mixed reactions.

ASHKELON, Israel - Freshly coaxed or dragged by Israeli security forces from their homes in the Gaza Strip's Jewish settlements, dozens of dazed and weeping families arrived by the busload at the King Saul Hotel in this seaside city last week. In the hotel lobby, psychologists and social workers were ready to welcome them with hugs and counseling. Schoolteachers entertained the children with crayons, candies and games. Other volunteers stood by, offering to wash the settlers' laundry. Then the families were handed keys to hotel rooms and a promise of full room and board on the government's tab for 10 days - after that, they were reminded, it was time to get on with their lives outside the Gaza Strip.

LOOKING FORWARD MONDAY One year after the release of the Sept. 11 commission report recommending an overhaul of the U.S. security and intelligence apparatus, the House Homeland Security Committee will hold a hearing titled "The Secretary's Second-Stage Review: Re-thinking the Department of Homeland Security's Organization and Policy Direction." The House Small Business Committee will hear testimony on the government's compelling pharmacists to dispense drugs to which they are morally opposed.