JERUSALEM: Construction of Israeli settlements in the West Bank has resumed on a limited scale following the expiry of a 10-month moratorium on new construction, putting in doubt the future of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

Residents of Ariel, a large settlement block in the northern West Bank, woke up to the sound of bulldozers beginning work on more than 50 new housing units set to be built in the settlement.

The neighbourhood will be home to dozens of families evacuated from the Gaza settlement of Netzarim in 2005, who now live in caravans on a nearby hillside.

http://www.smh.com.au/world/peace-talks-at-risk-as-settlements-resume-20100927-15u2h.html

U.S. Works to Persuade Israel on Settlement Freeze By ETHAN BRONNER

This article is by Mark Landler, Helene Cooper and Ethan Bronner.

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is trying to cajole the Israeli government into a 60-day renewal of the freeze on Jewish settlement building by offering it security guarantees, ranging from military hardware to support for a long-term Israeli presence in the strategically sensitive Jordan Valley, according to lawmakers and other officials briefed on the proposals.

But with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu so far resisting the administration’s entreaties, the United States is also weighing a fallback plan, officials said, that could involve reaching out to the Palestinians with a pledge to formally endorse one of their central demands for the borders of a future Palestinian state.

The American proposals to Israel came amid a frenzy of diplomatic horse-trading, with the administration maneuvering furiously to keep the talks alive while Mr. Netanyahu appeared to be trying to extract a high price for acquiescing on settlements. The Palestinians have threatened to walk away from the talks if Israel does not renew its freeze on construction, something Mr. Netanyahu has ruled out.

Adding to the pressure is a meeting in Cairo next week of the Arab League, at which the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, has promised to deliver a speech in which he will “declare historical decisions.” That sparked rumors that he might threaten to resign, something he has done before.

For now, the administration’s focus remains on Mr. Netanyahu, whom American officials hope they can persuade to renew the freeze, with the understanding that Washington will ask for no further extensions. The administration’s special envoy to the region, George J. Mitchell, met with Mr. Netanyahu on Wednesday and plans to meet him again before seeing Mr. Abbas on Friday.

Details of the American offer were first reported in the Israeli news media, and widely disseminated in Washington in an essay by David Makovsky, a well-connected Middle East analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

The White House denied Thursday that President Obama had sent a letter with proposals to Mr. Netanyahu. It declined to comment further on the negotiations.

But on Wednesday, the White House’s senior Middle East advisers, Dennis B. Ross and Daniel B. Shapiro, briefed Democratic representatives on Capitol Hill about what Mr. Ross described as a “string of assurances in return for a two-month moratorium,” according to people who were in the meeting.

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Gus: sixty days freeze on trowelling in Palestinian lands for guns? What about a forever freeze?.

And so the settlement expansion continues

 

Anthony Loewenstein

Will they or won't they? The international media was counting down the hours until Israel's self-described "settlement freeze" ended this week.

Most Western journalists, based in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, looked for any signs from the government of Benjamin Netanyahu that would appease the perceived outrage of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas who claimed he would walk out of US-backed talks if colonies continued construction.

The elaborate dance came and went, building resumed and Palestinians were once again left standing at the altar with no concessions and less land without Zionist footprints.

In fact, if reporters had actually travelled around the West Bank during the last months they would have found extensive settler work. Dror Etkes writes in Haaretz that even according to official Israeli figures the number of housing units built in settlements barely reduced over the last 10 months. Etkes explains:

"The truth is that the settlers know better than anyone else that not only did construction in settlements continue over the last 10 months, and vigorously, but also that a relatively large part of the houses were built on settlements that lie east of the separation fence, such as Bracha, Itamar, Eli, Shilo, Maaleh Mikhmas, Maon, Carmel, Beit Haggai, Kiryat Arba, Mitzpeh Yeriho and others."

The Obama administration's attempts at seducing Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, are getting embarrassing. Netanyahu has made it very clear he is not interested.

According to Ha'aretz, the latest (and most cringe-worthy) moment in the saga came this week when Dennis Ross, the president's top adviser on Israel-Palestinian issues, convinced Obama that Israel would only agree to an extension of the settlements freeze if Obama would "come off as friendlier" to Bibi.

So Ross and his aides (working with the Israelis) drafted a letter to Netanyahu in which the US would give Israel everything it could possibly want in exchange for a two-month freeze.

The details of the letter were revealed by researcher David Makovsky on the website of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

According to the report, the letter included incentives crucial to Israel's security that Netanyahu has been demanding for years. For example, the US pledged to support Israel's position on stationing Israeli troops in the Jordan Valley after the establishment of a Palestinian state, in order to prevent weapons smuggling.

The US also would not ask Israel to further extend the building moratorium and would pledge that the issue of settlements would be dealt with only as part of final-status talks with the Palestinians, the letter reportedly said.

The US also reportedly would veto any UN Security Council resolutions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict this year, would upgrade Israel's defence capabilities after the peace agreement, and would increase security assistance.

This reportedly would include providing Israel with advanced fighter jets and early warning systems, including satellites. The US also would start talks with Arab countries toward a regional agreement vis-a-vis Iran.

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/2010/10/2010102103847283685.html

Let's take a look at my take on the direct threats to Australia’s security  by just thinking.  They are in my priority order as follows....

1  The Murdoch Zionist media empire and their false information being fed to our people – without regulation.

2  Abbott and his cobbled together totally newly elected neo-cons and the remnants of the infamous Howard "New Order". In short "the wreckers".

3  Climate change.

 

AND WORLD WIDE.

4 The Zionists and their control of their "bought and paid for" US administration.  (And it’s legal in their country)

5 The US Imperialist attitude to continuous wars of choice.

6 The future danger to all world citizens by the US arms cartel. End of my perceived threats directly to Australia….  Except to make these observations….

a.  When we went to war in the Chinese “fist” rebellions it was because we were part of the British Empire.

b.  The South African Boer War was equally serving the Queen.  And the Brits made a deal with the Boers to have two of our Australian Officers executed by rifle fire – for the Queen.

c.  WW I was a war of Monarchs for no real purpose at all but we lost many thousands of service personnel – for the King.

d.  WW 2 at first did not threaten Australia but we sent our sixth and Ninth division to Africa and our eighth division to Malaya – to serve the King.

There is no doubt that the Japanese threat to Australia was real and with the massive help of the US our returned sixth division and our untrained  “Chokos” stopped them on the Kokoda trail and Milne Bay.

THAT WAS FOR THE DEFENCE OF OUR COUNTRY AND TO DATE, THE ONLY ONE THAT CANNOT BE OTHERWISE CLAIMED.

Now for the wars of choice and our involvement.

Iraq – Howard’s lies to support the illegal invasion.  Our casualties did not die or suffer wounds for our country – no sir, for our GOVERNMENT .

Afghanistan – our casualties and deaths were because our GOVERNMENT (past and present) claimed to support the United Nations .

And future involvements in these unnecessary but profitable wars….

I consider that the Middle East is a chosen victim of Zionist expansion which was once controlled by the US for their own purposes - but no more.

IMHO, if the Zionists are allowed to continue on their individual way, without any obligation to any laws, not even their own, then their use of atomic weapons is guaranteed.

Just like Iraq and Afghanistan, Iran is not a threat but - is certainly the threatened nation irrespective of satisfying all of its commitments required by the U.N. - while its excuser (the Zionists) has breached every one.  So, when Netanyahu tells Obama "Deal with Iran or we will" the innocent country cannot do anything except, like Afghanistan  Iraq (and now perhaps Pakistan) fight with every available weapon - including the conscious gift of their lives.

It seems to me that two many nations are being carried away with the Zionist opinion that only they are entitled to live on this planet.

The only reason that I can accept about the Zionists dictating to the rest of the western world is money.  If that is true then history is being repeated and repeated and repeated again.  NE OUBLIE.

 

 

 

Israel is investigating Palestinian suspicions that a mosque in the West Bank was set alight by Jewish settlers.

Arsonists reportedly scrawled Hebrew graffiti on the walls of the mosque in Beit Fajjar, near Bethlehem.

The mayor of a nearby settlement condemned the attack and said those carrying it out must have been "extremists".

The assault comes as Palestinian-Israeli peace talks have faltered over the issue of settlements.

 

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Gus: WHAT ARE SETTLEMENTS? and where are they? Why are they so strategically placed to divide the Palestinian land with no-go areas and Israeli roads only ON PALESTINIAN LANDS...