The Israeli Peace Now movement yesterday condemned a reported decision by the United States to modify its policy toward construction in Jewish settlements in the occupied territories. "The decision ... opens the door to a new momentum of building in all settlements," the settlement monitoring group said. "The decision severely harms the roadmap (peace plan) and could be the final nail in its coffin," a statement issued by the movement added.
| The final nail in its coffin was when Hamas boomed the bus. From that point, it wasn't gonna happen. So now all bets are off. |
The statement was a reaction to a report in The New York Times saying the US now approved construction within some settlements, if it did not expand beyond their existing built-up areas. Previously, the US had consistently called on Israel to abide by the road map peace plan, which demands an absolute freeze of all settlement activity, including that accommodating for natural growth. The paper quoted an administration official as saying that new US statements this week reflected "a covert policy decision toward accepting natural growth". |