The peace process between Israel and the Palestinians most often resembles a fragile figure struggling to stay up despite getting socked by one side or the other.
The latest blow is a report that Israel has plans to expand the Maale Adumim settlement–the largest Israeli enclave in the West Bank–by adding more than 600 housing units. The addition of roads and houses eventually would connect the settlement to Jerusalem, about four miles away, effectively making it a neighborhood of that city.
Just about every attempt to bring peace to the area, including the seemingly moribund “road map,” has insisted that Israel cease expanding settlements or building new ones.
The reason is simple–it’s impossible to negotiate peace while one side keeps encroaching and annexing the other side’s land.
Earlier this year, in an off-the-table agreement with the Sharon government, the U.S. acknowledged that some unidentified settlements would remain part of Israel even after an eventual peace pact, and effectively dismissed the Palestinian “right of return” to Israel as unrealistic. But even this understanding provided for a freeze in the construction of additional settlements or expansion of existing ones.
The status of Maale Adumim is in dispute. Israel’s Housing Ministry says the government has no plans to construct houses there soon. But the mayor of Maale Adumim says that planning is indeed underway.
The Bush administration spent a considerable amount of political ammunition pushing the road map for peace, with few results to show for it. New settlement-building would be another setback for its efforts. The administration needs to go beyond the ritual expressions of “concern” or “disappointment” this time and seek a guarantee that expansion is not in the works.
Every expansion of Israeli settlements is a setback for an eventual peace pact between Israelis and Palestinians. The expansion of the already-massive Maale Adumim would be a major one and the U.S. should react accordingly.
Recent actions by both sides have raised hopes of some tentative movement toward peace. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has advanced a gutsy plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip. He has proposed dismantling some smaller settlements in the West Bank.
At the same time there has been a lull in suicide bombings and other attacks by Palestinian terrorists. It’s hard to guess why. Perhaps the separation fence has worked, or the elimination of Hamas’ top leaders has given pause to Palestinian terrorists, or–most wishful of all–Palestinians are responding to the promise of the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
It is acknowledged that any peace pact between Israel and the Palestinians will have to recognize certain irreversible “facts on the ground”–who lives where. For Israel to change those facts–to the Palestinians’ disadvantage–would be a recipe for perpetual conflict.
