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Settlements Are No Threat

[Baltimore Sun] Aron U. Raskas - As one looks out from Rimonim, a Jewish settlement in the heart of the West Bank, the most telling fact is what one does not see. Over the miles of rolling hills, there is not an Arab village, building, home or even a herd of sheep to be seen. The scene is the same at other Jewish settlements as well. Palestinian propaganda has for years purveyed the myth of Israeli settlements choking Palestinian communities the way residential developments have encroached upon rural America. Yet, in reality, nothing like this exists in the largely unsettled expanses of the West Bank. Even the group Peace Now concedes that Israeli settlements - mostly bedroom communities of Jerusalem or Tel Aviv - occupy less than 3% of the West Bank. More than 98% of Palestinians already live under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority, and there is no shortage of land there for Palestinian expansion.
2009-06-08 06:00:00
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