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Why Nick Clegg Should Focus on the Settlement, Not the Settlements

(Huffington Post) Lorna Fitzsimons - "An act of deliberate vandalism" was how British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg described Israeli settlement building on Monday. But Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' demand for a complete halt to all Israeli construction over the Green Line is now a road-block preventing the commencement of bilateral talks. By making Israeli settlements (plural) the issue, we inadvertently make the settlement (singular, and conflict-ending) almost impossible to reach because we block the direct negotiations which alone can secure a Palestinian state. The Palestinians are using settlement construction as an excuse for not talking. They negotiated with the Olmert government in 2008 with no settlement freeze. The historical record does not bear out the idea that a settlement freeze is the indispensable condition for solving the Israeli-Arab conflict. The Oslo Accords in 1993, Camp David in 2000, the negotiations at Annapolis in 2007 were all conducted without a settlement freeze. Conversely, in August 2005, when Israel evacuated all of the settlements in Gaza and four in the northern West Bank, the result was - more terror attacks. Israel has not built a single new "settlement" since 1993. The announcement of contracts and the running commentary on each step of the planning process for every extension in existing communities may make it sound like there are lots of new "settlements" being built but there simply are not. Palestinian negotiator Saab Erekat has said settlements are built on 1.1% of the West Bank. The writer, a former Member of Parliament (Labour, 1997-2005), is CEO of BICOM - the Britain Israel Communications & Research Centre.
2012-01-20 00:00:00
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