Israel OKs new settlement work despite slowdown

[March 08, 2010]  JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israel authorized the construction of 112 new apartments in the West Bank despite a pledge to slow down settlement building, the government disclosed Monday -- enraging the Palestinians just a day after they reluctantly agreed to resume peace talks.

Word of the new construction in the Beitar Illit settlement and their possible complication of the talks came amid a flurry of activity by the U.S. to try to salvage peacemaking.

Vice President Joseph Biden is due to land later Monday on the highest-level visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories by an Obama administration official. Washington's special envoy to the Mideast, George Mitchell, was also in the area, meeting Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

"I believe we will succeed in advancing the diplomatic process," Netanyahu said after meeting with Mitchell. "But the diplomatic process is not a game, it is real, and rooted first and foremost in (Israel's) security."

Jewish construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem is a particularly sore point with the Palestinians because it challenges their claims to lands they want for a future state.

Under heavy U.S. pressure, Israel agreed in November to restrict building in the West Bank to some 3,000 apartments whose construction was already under way. But it rejected any curbs in east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians want for their future capital.

The government said at the time that exceptions to the slowdown could be allowed, and on Monday, the Ministry of Defense said an exception was made in the case of the ultra-Orthodox Beitar Illit because of what it termed safety and infrastructure issues. The ministry said it was the biggest exception granted since the slowdown went into effect.

On Sunday, Palestinian leaders agreed to take part in U.S.-brokered peace talks with Israel for four months, ending a 14-month breakdown.

In so doing, they backed off from a demand that Israel freeze all building in the West Bank and east Jerusalem before they would return to the negotiating table.

On Monday, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat accused Israel of trying to undermine the talks even before they began.

"If the Israeli government wants to sabotage Mitchell's efforts by taking such steps, let's talk to Mitchell about maybe not doing this (indirect talks) if the price is so high," Erekat said.

Israeli anti-settlement watchdog Peace Now also questioned Israel's motives. "The Israeli government is welcoming the (U.S.) vice president by demonstrating, to our regret, that it has no genuine intention to advance the peace process," said the group's settlement expert, Hagit Ofran.

The Palestinians broke off the talks after Israel launched its bruising offensive in the Gaza Strip in December 2008, aimed at stopping years of rocket attacks on Israeli towns.

The overrunning of Gaza by Islamic Hamas militants in June 2007 has been another major complication to peacemaking.

On Monday, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told a parliamentary committee that Hamas has been rearming and now had rockets that could reach Israel's Tel Aviv heartland, according to a participant who spoke on condition of anonymity because of parliamentary protocol.

Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups based in Damascus, meanwhile, rejected the Palestinian leadership's decision to hold indirect peace talks with Israel, and accused it of caving in to pressure from the U.S. and Israel.

[Associated Press; By AMY TEIBEL]

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