Plans to expand a West Bank settlement by up to 2,500 homes drew Palestinian condemnation on Monday and presented an early test for US President Barack Obama, whose Middle East envoy is well known for opposing such construction.
Israel opened the way for possible expansion of the Efrat settlement by taking control of a nearby West Bank hill. The rocky plot was recently designated state land and is part of a plan that envisions the settlement growing from 9,000 to 30,000 residents, Efrat mayor Oded Revivi said.
Israeli officials said any new construction would require several years more of planning and stages of approval.
The outgoing government of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said it reserves the right to keep building in large West Bank settlement blocs that it wants to annex as part of a final peace deal with the Palestinians. Efrat is in one of those blocs.
The composition of Israel’s next government is not clear yet, because last week’s elections were inconclusive. However, right-wing parties are given a better chance to form a ruling coalition, with hard-line leader Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister.
Speaking to US Jewish leaders on Monday, the two contenders for leading the new Israeli government expressed their differences over the Palestinian issue.
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, whose centrist Kadima party won 28 of the 120 seats in parliament in last week’s election, said Israel must withdraw from “parts of the Land of Israel,” a reference to the West Bank, in a peace deal.
Livni said Israel must give up considerable territory in exchange for peace with the Palestinians, drawing a clear distinction with Netanyahu.
She told a convention of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Organizations, “we need to give up parts of the Land of Israel,” using a term that refers to biblical borders that include today’s Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, repeating her view that pulling out of Palestinian areas would be for the good of Israel.
Livni said that Israel must take the initiative and come forward with its own peace plan to head off international programs.
In his address before the gathering, Netanyahu ruled out unilateral pullbacks from territory.
He said he, too, does not want to govern Palestinians, but Israel must maintain control of all borders, airspace and electronic traffic, indicating that his offer to the Palestinians would be considerably less than a sovereign state.
Settlement expansion is likely to create friction not only with the Palestinians, but with Obama, whose Mideast envoy, George Mitchell, has long pushed for a freeze on the expansion of Jewish settlements.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
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