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Netanyahu Sets Conditions for Supporting Disengagement Plan

(Maarivenglish.com) Menahem Rahat and Eliel Shahar - At a meeting Sunday between Prime Minister Sharon and Likud ministers, Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu announced his conditions for supporting the plan. These included the continuation of a determined, unconditional military counter-offensive to terror, U.S acceptance of a security barrier route in which clusters of settlements remain on the Israeli side, and U.S. acknowledgement that the Palestinian right of return has expired. On Sunday at an economic forum in Tel Aviv, Netanyahu added another condition: Completing the construction of the counter-terrorism barrier from the Gilboa region in the north to Mount Hebron in the south before a withdrawal is carried out. Netanyahu added that the Ariel settlement bloc, Gush Etzion, and Ma'ale Adumim must be on the Israeli side of the barrier. According to Netanyahu, senior Bush administration officials expressed concern that the disengagement plan would encourage terrorism. "Israel cannot be viewed as rewarding terror," he said, adding that implementing the plan without the conditions he had outlined would "endanger Israel's future existence."
2004-03-22 00:00:00
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