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Israeli settler population surges under Netanyahu

JERUSALEM (AP/Boston.com) –Since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was elected more than three years ago, the Jewish population in the West Bank has ballooned by 18 percent, drawing tens of thousands of Israelis to the territory the Palestinians claim as the heartland of a future state, according to figures obtained by The Associated Press.

The rate of growth — nearly twice that of Israel proper– has deep implications for an already moribund peace process. The issue is at the heart of a three-year-old impasse in Mideast peace efforts, and critics say each new settlement home makes it ever tougher for the Israelis and the Palestinians to reach the territorial compromise that would be needed for any agreement.

The rising settler numbers are “consistent with Netanyahu’s commitment to maintain the Israeli control over the Palestinian territories and consistent with his lack of commitment to the establishment of a Palestinian state as part of a two-state solution,” Palestinian government spokesman Ghassan Khatib said.

The number of settlers in the West Bank have grown much higher, more than tripling since the first interim peace accord of 1993 to more than 342,000 at the end of 2011, according to Interior Ministry figures.

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With nearly 10 percent of Israel’s 6 million Jews now living on occupied territory, the growing settler population has in effect erased the pre-1967 frontier, said pro-settler Jerusalem Post commentator Michael Freund.

“Jewish life in Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem is growing and flourishing, and there is no human power on earth that is going to uproot or move hundreds of thousands of Jews from places such as Ariel, Tekoa or Hebron,” he wrote in a recent column, referring to the West Bank by its biblical name and naming three settlements there.

Bridge building, a bridge leading to nowhere …

US envoy William Burns says Syria talks were candid (2010)

(BBC News) – A top US diplomat has described as “candid” his lengthy talks with Syrian President Bashar Assad – part of a US move to improve ties with Damascus. Under-Secretary of State William Burns ‘ visit comes a day after US President Barack Obama nominated the first US ambassador to Syria in five years.

Analysts say the visit aims to loosen Syrian ties with Iran. Syrian-US ties snapped in 2005 when the US withdrew its envoy after ex-Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri was assassinated. Mr Burns is also due to meet Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem in Damascus, as part of a regional tour.

Correspondents say the envoy’s visit is also aimed at helping the push for a Middle East peace accord.

Bridge-building

Following his talks with Mr Assad, Mr Burns said in a statement: “We talked candidly about the areas in which we disagree, but also identified the areas of common ground on which we can build. There are challenges on the road but my meeting with President Assad leaves me hopeful that we can make progress together in the interest of both our countries.”

Washington and Damascus may disagree on issues such as Syria’s alliance with Iran and its support for militant groups like Hamas and Hezbollah, but they have recently found common ground over Lebanon and Iraq, says the BBC’s Lina Sinjab in Damascus.

Both countries want to see movement on the Arab-Israeli peace process, our correspondent adds, and this is another area on which the countries can agree. But analysts in Damascus believe that President Obama’s administration needs to quickly deliver something tangible in the coming months to cement the recent progress between the countries.

Syria inches in from the cold (2008)

NYT: Levy report is potential disaster for peace

Editorial says legalizing Israel’s occupation is “bad law, bad policy, bad politics,” notes report could divert attention from Iran.

TEL AVIV (Jerusalem Post) July, 11, 2012 – “Palestinian hopes for an independent state are growing dimmer all the time. Israel is pushing ahead with new settlements in the West Bank, and now comes a potentially disastrous blow” the New York Times wrote in an editorial published in the paper.

The editorial referred to the “Levy Report,” a report co-authored by retired Supreme Court justice Edmund Levy on legal issues regarding West Bank settlements, as “bad law, bad policy and bad politics.”

The editorial was extremely troubled that the report stated that Israel’s presence in the West Bank is “not occupation. The commission endorsed the state’s legal right to settle there and recommended that the state approve scores of new Israeli settlements. It proposed stripping the military of its authority to force settlers off land claimed by Palestinians.”

“Most of the world views the West Bank, which was taken by Israel from Jordan in the 1967 war, as occupied territory and all Israeli construction there as a violation of international law,” states the editorial, noting that “the world court ruled this way in 2004, the Fourth Geneva Convention bars occupying powers from settling their own populations in occupied lands. And UN resolution 242, a core of Middle East policy,” calls for Israeli withdrawals from the West Bank.

Th editorial points out that the report’s recommendations “would annul a number of past Israeli Supreme Court rulings and orders, including a 1979 decision forbidding the expropriation of land for ‘military needs’ when the real goal is settlement construction.”

Obama Administration Slams Levy Report

Obama Admin. Excludes Israel from New Counterterrorism Forum

America–known to jihadists as the “Great Satan”– and Israel (the “Little Satan”) combined have lost thousands of lives to Islamic terror over the years. Israel, in particular, is uniquely threatened, living under daily fire by its neighbors and in a constant precarious position due to the likes of Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Al-Aqsa Martyr’s Brigade (and before that, Arafat’s PLO).

Not surprisingly, both the U.S. and Israel are also at the forefront of devising strategies to defeat the jihadist menace and have worked extremely closely together since 9/11 on that front.

But over the past few years, things have begun to change. And not for the better. To the point where Israel is now actually excluded from U.S.-organized counterterrorism forums.

Supporters of Israel–Jewish and non-Jewish–will have a lot of explaining to do if they cast their votes for Obama in November, as it has become ridiculously clear that this is the most anti-Israel administration in American history. Yes, even worse than Jimmy Carter. Maybe I should have stayed on vacation.

Exclusive: Romney to host fundraiser in Jerusalem

"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."

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