“Our message is clear: We are planting here, we will stay here, we will build here. This place will be an inseparable part of the state of Israel for eternity,’’ Netanyahu proclaimed, just as envoy George Mitchell was trying to restart peace talks after a yearlong stalemate.
In his claim, Netanyahu was referring to what Israel calls its “main settlement blocs,’’ most of them close to Israeli population centers. Israel has long said it would keep the blocs, where about 80 percent of its 300,000 settlers live, and trade Israeli land to the Palestinians in exchange for the blocs. In failed negotiations with relatively moderate Israeli premiers, Palestinians have indicated they might accept such a trade.
But Netanyahu is suspect in Palestinian eyes, since he has opposed ceding control of any of the West Bank and has backed settlement expansion. Only under heavy US pressure did he express grudging acceptance of the idea of a Palestinian state last June.
Netanyahu responded to Palestinian demands for a total construction freeze in the settlements by limiting new building in the West Bank but not in east Jerusalem, claimed by the Palestinians as their capital. Palestinians rejected the partial freeze as insufficient to get them back to the negotiating table.
Yesterday, claiming Maaleh Adumim and the Gush Etzion bloc south of Jerusalem, Netanyahu again provided fuel for Palestinian outrage.
“This is an unacceptable act that destroys all the efforts being exerted by Senator Mitchell in order to bring the parties back to the negotiating table,’’ said Nabil Abu Rdeneh, an aide to Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority.
This came as Mitchell was conducting his latest round of talks in the region to try to get peace talks back on track.
In Jordan, Mitchell appeared unmoved by Netanyahu’s declaration, restating the US goal of a Palestinian state living next to Israel in peace.
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