Outgoing Envoy To Israel Reasserts U.S. Support For Major Settlement Blocs
WaPo reports,
The outgoing U.S. ambassador to Israel said in an interview broadcast Sunday that President George W. Bush will back a request by Israel to keep larger West Bank settlement areas under its control in a permanent peace agreement with the Palestinians.
Palestinians reacted with anger to the comments, saying they would only encourage Israel to pre-empt final status negotiations.
Ambassador Daniel Kurtzer, who completed his term Friday, cited an April 2004 letter from Bush to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, setting out the U.S. position on settlements.
“The policy is exactly what the president said,” Kurtzer said in the prerecorded interview. “In the context of a final status agreement, the United States will support the retention by Israel of areas with a high concentration of Israeli population.”
It’s non-binding bullcrap.
Last year, Bush said ‘something’ very vague which Sharon and the Israeli media construed and twisted into full American endorsement of settlement blocs. The next day, his secretary of state, Colin Powell, reiterated that US policy has not changed one bit and that the US does not recognize settlement blocks.
US policy does not recognize Israeli control over Jude, Samaria, the Golan, or ‘east’ Jerusalem.
Well finally something is happening. US is supporting Isreal and this is very crucial.
That’s “blocs” not “blocks,” folks.
P.S. Jews! Come here and increase the “concentration” as Kurtzer calls it. Plenty of barren hilltops.