Netanyahu defies U.S. on Israeli settlements
After a tense Washington meeting, he says he will block new building, but let existing outposts expand.
JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday that Israel would continue to build homes in existing West Bank settlements, defying U.S. calls to halt settlement growth.
The comments came days after a contentious visit to the White House and threatened to widen a growing rift with the Obama administration. The United States considers the settlements - home to about 280,000 Israelis - obstacles to peace because they are built on captured territory the Palestinians claim for a future state.
Netanyahu told the weekly meeting of his cabinet that he would not allow any new settlements to be created, but said existing settlements must be allowed to expand for "natural growth," the ill-defined term Israel uses for population growth in the settlements.
"We will not build new settlements," he said, according to remarks released by his office. "But it is not fair not to provide a solution to natural growth."
An official who attended the meeting quoted Netanyahu as saying, "There is no way that we are going to tell people not to have children, or to force young people to move away from their families." The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting was closed.
Netanyahu has voiced this policy previously, but his affirmation of his plans took on added significance coming so close after his tense first White House visit with President Obama. U.S. policy on Israeli settlements does not allow for natural growth.
Israeli officials have sought to play down their differences with Washington, saying that joint working groups will continue discussions on the matter. The settlement issue is sure to come up this week when Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas visits the White House.
Abbas has said there was no point to meeting with Netanyahu unless he froze settlement construction and agreed to open negotiations on Palestinian independence.
Netanyahu spoke yesterday after a heated cabinet debate over what to do with settlement outposts, the wildcat communities established by settlers to cement their hold on the West Bank.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak said that nearly two dozen outposts would be torn down, and he warned that settlers would be evicted forcefully if they resisted. But other members of the hawkish cabinet objected to immediate action, signaling the difficulty the Israeli leader faces in dealing with a new U.S. administration eager to revive stalled Mideast peace efforts.
Israel has sanctioned the construction of 121 settlements over the years. In addition, settlers have put up an estimated 100 outposts since the early 1990s. Although the outposts were not sanctioned by the government, an array of officials were complicit in their construction, a government report has charged.
Before the cabinet meeting, Barak told reporters that he would take down 22 outposts that Israel promised the United States to dismantle under the 2003 peace plan known as the road map.