I think Israel should stop even pretending they want a two state solution to their security problems. It's just prolonging a situation that can't come to a good end.
Israel May Give Utility Services to Settlements Built Recently
By GREG MYRE
JERUSALEM, Oct. 27 ? Eight recently erected Jewish settlement outposts in the West Bank could soon receive government services like electricity and phones lines, a Defense Ministry official said Monday. Palestinians denounced the proposal as a violation of the stalled Middle East peace plan.
The plan calls for Israel to dismantle all settlements built since Prime Minister Ariel Sharon came to power in March 2001. Since it was formally introduced in June, only a handful have been removed, and about 60 remain, according to Peace Now, an Israeli monitoring group.
The Israeli official, Ron Shechner, who advises the defense minister on settlements, said it was not his position to determine whether the recently built settlements should remain or be torn down.
But as long as Israelis "are there on the ground, you have to give them the basic security means," Mr. Shechner said on Israeli radio. He cited electricity, phones, fences and schools as services the government could soon deliver. Most settlement outposts consist of only a few mobile homes on desolate hilltops.
In point of fact, if the building of new settlements is against the current national policy, the new settlers are
criminals, and as such you are
WRONG to provide them with "basic security means."
If the building of new settlements is against the current national policy.
BUt, of course, I'm sure the situation is too complex for me to judge from such a remove.
