Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Sharon pledges to expand West Bank settlements as last Israelis leave Gaza (The Independent)

Un passo avanti e uno indietro?
Am.
 Sharon pledges to expand West Bank settlements as last Israelis leave Gaza
 By Donald Macintyre in Yad Mordechai
 Published: 23 August 2005
 Ariel Sharon yesterday marked the withdrawal of Gaza's last Jewish 
settlement with a stark warning that Israel would continue building in 
the biggest settlements in the West Bank.
 Residents marched bearing biblical scrolls and their synagogue's 
menorah into armoured buses that took them out of Netzarim, an isolated 
Jewish enclave close to Gaza City, after troops had entered. Netzarim 
was among the first settlements to be founded, 33 years ago, and the 
last to be evacuated.
South of Gaza City, within sight of the departing residents, a group of 
Palestinian men as well as children danced in celebration to the music 
of a bagpiper and two drummers.
But the Israeli Prime Minister marked the peaceful end of Jewish 
settlement in Gaza by setting himself at odds with publicly stated 
American policy: he promised to continue linking Ma'ale Adumin, the 
largest West Bank settlement, with Jerusalem.
Mr Sharon declared: "There will be building in the settlement blocs. 
Each government since 1967 - right, left and national unity - has seen 
strategic importance in specific areas [on the Palestinian side of 
Israel's pre-1967 borders, beyond the Green Line]. I will build." He 
said Ma'ale Adumim would "continue to grow and be connected to 
Jerusalem," and that Ariel settlement would be a permanent part of 
Israel.
The Jerusalem Post, which carried the interview with Mr Sharon, said he 
was "obviously aware" the internationally agreed road map to peace, to 
which Mr Sharon repeatedly says he is committed, called for a freeze on 
all new settlement construction and that such construction would put 
him on a "collision course" with the US and Europe.
In a robust attempt to make clear to the right that disengagement did 
not mean he had forsaken his role as the principal architect of 
relentless settlement growth over the past 30 years or more, Mr Sharon 
said: "Because of the settlements we can pray at the Cave of the 
Patriarchs [in Hebron]".
If not for the settlement movement, he asked, "would it have been 
possible to renew the settlement in Gush Etzion; incorporate Rachel's 
Tomb inside Jerusalem's fence; or have Ma'ale Adumim and its 
satellites, Beit El, Shilo, the Ariel Bloc, or the security zone 
overlooking the coastal plain?".
Mr Sharon's remarks threaten to undermine the international community's 
insistence that Gaza disengagement is a way back to the road map. It 
also fulfils predictions of a post-disengagement rightward tack by the 
Israeli Prime Minister as he prepares for Likud leadership challenge by 
Benjamin Netanyahu, who resigned two weeks ago as finance minister in 
protest at disengagement.
But Mr Sharon's words were not enough to forestall vituperative attacks 
by political opponents of disengagement yesterday when he met the 
Knesset foreign and defence committee. Uzi Landau, a leading Likud 
dissident, called on Mr Sharon to resign and told him: "You are a liar, 
a swindler and cruel. You have brought Israel to the peak of 
corruption. You are not worthy of being a leader." The religious 
Zionist Knesset member, Effie Eitam, promised Mr Sharon he would be a 
victim of "political revenge".
And Mr Sharon's condemnation of settlers erecting "tent cities" was 
ignored by 45 families from the nearby secular coastal northern Gaza 
settlement of Elei Sinai, who prepared to stay under awnings thrown 
across a field next to a service station on the the main Tel 
Aviv-Beersheeva road until their demands to be rehoused as a single 
beachside community were met. Wellwishers brought them food, water and 
bedding, and Menachem Berger, 56, said there was "no limit" to how long 
the community was prepared to stay. "We will improve this place. We 
will bring caravans in a few weeks if necessary. We are here until 
someone from the government will accept our plans."
Although the government has earmarked a stretch of land close to the 
Israeli coastal beauty spot of Nitzanim, Mr Berger said it was "near a 
main road and five kilometres from the sea". He added: "Elei Sinai is a 
beautiful place by the sea and we are looking for something like that. 
If the government is going to take us out of Gaza for the sake of 
Israel and every citizen of Israel is going to prosper, we don't want 
to be the only ones who pay the price. If it costs a bit more than what 
they planned for us, why not?"
Now Israeli troops are preparing to overcome stiff resistance likely to 
be more violent than it was in most of the Gaza settlements when it 
moves in today to evacuate the two small northern West Bank settlements 
of Homesh and Sanur. Residents' ranks have been swelled by hundreds of 
"hilltop youth" and others from far-rightist West Bank settlements.
Seventeen residents hostile to the infiltrators left Sanur to avoid 
confrontation and reports said that on the roof of its former British 
police station, youths using the building as a citadel were welding 
metal rods into makeshift weapons.
Two of the four remote settlements - out of a total of 120 in the West 
Bank - are empty after settlers departed voluntarily.
Disputed holy sites
* THE TOMB OF THE PATRIARCHS in the West Bank town of Hebron is the 
second-holiest site in Judaism after Temple Mount in Jerusalem, but 
also holds religious significance for Muslims and Christians. It 
contains the twin caves that, according to tradition, are considered 
the burial place of Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, 
and Jacob and Leah. Until 1967, when Hebron was occupied by Israel, 
Jews were barred from ascending beyond the seventh step of the Mosque 
of Abraham now occupying the site.
* RACHEL'S TOMB is the third-holiest site in Judaism, on the outskirts 
of Palestinian-ruled Bethlehem. It is considered the final 
resting-place of the wife of Jacob, who set up a monument over her 
grave. She died giving birth to her second son, Benjamin. Rachel is the 
only matriarch not buried in Hebron. The tomb is a guarded pilgrimage 
site in an Israeli-protected enclave where there have been frequent 
shooting incidents.

 Un passo avanti e uno indietro?
No. Israele non cedera' mai le piu' grosse citta' in Cisgiordania. E
questo e' stato ben chiaro in tutte le proposte di pace.
-Stefano

 Un passo avanti e uno indietro?
No, un passo indietro e due in avanti.
č la tecnica Israeliana di annessione. 

 incidents.
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 the biggest settlements in the West Bank.
Quanto meno significa che non c'è l'intenzione piena di ritiro che molti,
anche in questo ng, attribuiscono a Sharon. Vedremo cosa succederà nei
prossimi... "due anni". Per il momento mi sembra che il solo ritiro da
Gaza abbia ridotto gli atti terroristici palestinesi molto più della
costruzione del muro.
gus
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atti terroristici palestinesi molto più della costruzione del muro.
Bella puttanata basata su *1* giorno dal termine del ritiro da Gaza :)
-Stefano

 Bella puttanata basata su *1* giorno dal termine del ritiro da Gaza :)
Un giorno in cui sono già partiti colpi di mortaio contro i kibbutz *sul 
territorio israeliano*.
Tb
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