New Settlement in Jordan Valley Breaks Israeli Vow

West Bank Project Breaks Israeli Vow – Settlers From Gaza

MASKIOT, Palestinian Territory (AP) June 3 — Israel has begun laying the foundations for a Jewish settlement deep in the West Bank — breaking a promise to Washington while strengthening its hold on a stretch of desert it wants to keep as it draws its final borders.

The construction of Maskiot comes at a time when Prime Minister Ehud Olmert seeks U.S. backing for eventually annexing parts of the West Bank as part of a plan to set Israel’s eastern border with or without Palestinian consent.

Palestinian families forced from their land to clear area for new Maskiot settlement.

The Palestinians and Israel’s settlement watchdog group Peace Now say the Maskiot construction amounts to a new attempt to push Israel’s future border deeper into the West Bank. “It’s about grabbing land,” said Yariv Oppenheimer of Peace Now.

Otniel Schneller, an Olmert adviser, confirmed Israel is building in additional West Bank areas to ensure they are not included in the lands given to the Palestinians. “Israel needs to keep the Jordan Valley, where Maskiot is located, as a security buffer against Islamic militants based in Iraq, Iran and elsewhere.”

To ensure a Jewish majority in lands it controls, Israel plans to evacuate as many as 70,000 West Bank settlers, moving them to the western side of the barrier. Israel depicts the move as a major concession, but Palestinians fear Jewish foot-holds like Maskiot will prevent them from being able to build a contiguous state on the evacuated lands.

Maskiot would initially house 20 families, all former Gaza settlers forced out of their homes when Israel withdrew from the coastal strip last year. Israel has promised Washington it would not build new settlements in the West Bank.
The future residents of Maskiot say their homes are being financed by right-leaning Jewish donors and the Israeli government, and that they will be renting homes built by others.

Asked about Maskiot, Stewart Tuttle, the U.S. Embassy spokesman in Tel Aviv, said such settlement activity violates U.S. policy. “As a general principle, the U.S. government is opposed to settlement expansion,” Tuttle said.

At Maskiot, bulldozers have cleared the top of a hill and work crews have laid foundations for four houses. Trees have been planted on the edges of the settlement.

● “The Land of the Settlers”
● Nazeeh and the Olive Grove

Motorola mulls new R&D center in Jordan Valley

ARAD, West Bank (Globes Online) May 30 — Communications equipment giant Motorola Inc. is planning to set up another development center in Israel. Motorola executive VP chief strategy officer Richard N. Nottenberg today met Minister of Finance Avraham Hirchson. Sources inform ”Globes” that they agreed that Motorola would consider setting up the new center in the Jordan Valley.

The Ministry of Finance and Motorola reportedly agreed that the government would subsidize part of the salaries of the new center’s employees. Nottenberg said he would try to persuade other US companies to open R&D centers in Israel.

Motorola’s major Israeli operations are centered in Arad, located between Be’er Sheva and the Dead Sea, south of the Jordan Valley. The new center would include government subsidies in an effort to attract other companies to set up operations.

German-backed study claims $14B spent on settlements over forty years

JERUSALEM (AP) Feb. 3, 2006 — More than US$14 billion has been spent on Israel’s West Bank settlements over the past four decades according to a new study, one of the most comprehensive attempts to assess the total expenditures for the communities.

The study considered settlements to include suburbs of Jerusalem like Maaleh Adumim. (AP)

An exact figure for how much money has been spent on the settlements since Israel captured the West Bank in 1967 has been nearly impossible to obtain, since settlement spending is spread throughout numerous areas of the budget and not identified as specific funding for the settlements.

The Israeli Research Institute for Economic and Social Affairs, an independent body, resorted to retroactive cost estimates and aerial photography to come up with its figure. Other studies have come up with similar figures. In 2003, the Haaretz daily did a study of budgets and expenditures and determined that up to that date, Israel had spent $10.1 billion on the settlements.

See also my recent diaries ::
● Bush and Olmert Choking Gaza & Palestinian Economy
● Economic Siege Imposed on the Palestinians
● Warren Buffett Invests $4bn In ME Peace Effort