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Powell: PA must fight terror before settlements frozen
JPost Reg Reqâd US Secretary of State Colin Powell has said that the Palestinians need to crack down on terror groups before Israel can be expected to respond to US pressure to curb settlement growth. wow! equal expectations? "It is very difficult if not impossible for the prime minister [Sharon] ... in the face of activity that seems to be tolerated by the governmental authorities on the other side...to say to his people that he is yielding to pressure from the Americans or anyone else," Powell said on the televised Charlie Rose Show. Palestinians accuse Israel of not fulfilling their obligations according to the US-backed road map peace plan by expanding settlements throughout the West Bank. "They [the Israelis] will respond, in my judgment, when it can be demonstrated that the Palestinian side is doing something about the bombing, the terror," Powell said. Pressure applied equally. IMHO though the settlements will be a long term problem for Israel. Tough to defend outside the fence - which will eventually define the borders between Israel and Palestine, they will have to be left to their own means of defense or abandoned Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria have grown an average of three times as fast as those inside the Green Line, according to a study slated for release soon. The 2002 Statistical Abstract published by the College of Judea and Samaria in Ariel showed that the Jewish population of the West Bank has grown 144 percent in the past decade. In comparison, the growth rate of the entire country was 32%. The statistical abstract said that from the beginning of 2000 through 2002 the Jewish population in Judea and Samaria grew by 20%, while the average growth in the country was just 6.8%. The Jewish population in Judea and Samaria numbered 213,000 at the end of 2002, which represented 3.2% of the population of Israel and 4% of the stateâs Jewish population. Posted by: Frank G 2003-09-23 |
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