Miguel
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JERUSALEM -- Before a meeting next week with President Bush, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon set a hard line Tuesday on retaining Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Sharon dismissed as not "on the horizon" any talk of changing Israel's settlement policy, and he dismissed suggestions that the Bush administration was pressing him to dismantle settlements.
Also Tuesday, Israeli police detained 15 members of the country's largest Arab organization, the Islamic Movement, accusing them of secretly providing millions of dollars to support the bombing campaigns waged by militant groups such as Hamas. The leader of the Islamic Movement, Sheik Raed Salah, was among those seized in northern Israel. A spokesman for the group denied any links to Hamas or attacks on Israel.
The issue of settlements was discussed with Sharon over the weekend by Secretary of State Colin Powell, who said that Bush would also pursue the matter when he sees Sharon next Tuesday in Washington.
In an interview with Israel TV, Powell said he told Sharon that settlements were "a problem" and that Bush would speak to the prime minister "in very open, straightforward, honest, candid terms about settlement activity."
A new U.S.-backed peace plan, known as the road map, calls on Israel to dismantle all settlement outposts built since March 2001, at the same time that the Palestinian Authority cracks down on terrorism. It also calls for a freeze on Israeli settlements. Sharon insists that the Palestinians must end incitement and dismantle all terrorist organizations before Israel can begin to make concessions.
In an interview with the Jerusalem Post, Sharon suggested that there was nothing new to the U.S. concerns. He noted that no American administration had ever supported settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip but that every Israeli government built them.
"In my mind this is not an issue on the horizon right now," he was quoted as saying.
Asked about dismantling settlements or outposts, he said, "It is not something today that anyone is dealing with," adding, "There is no pressure from anyone."
Sharon has repeatedly said he would make "painful concessions" for peace, while adding that he could not reveal what they are now.
Sharon restated his support for a Palestinian state. "I think it is good for us, and good for the Palestinians," he said. "I don't think we can continue to control another people."
But Saeb Erekat, the Palestinians' chief negotiator, said talk of peace was meaningless without action on settlements. "It's either settlements or peace," he said.
Sharon also told the Jerusalem Post that a new barrier fence Israel is building along the West Bank would sweep eastward to enclose two settlements, Ariel and Emmanuel. That route would incorporate a large swath of the West Bank on the Israeli side of the fence.
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Romans 9:11-24
Our Eschatology may vary even our Ecclesiology may be disputed among us but our Soteriology most assume a singularity and exclusivity which in biblical term is known as Quote; "The Narrow Way" and Quote!
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