(INN) -- Report: PM Demands Israel Keep Beit El 'Bloc' in Deal

While nothing is official yet, the settlement framework being developed by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is likely to include a mechanism for Israeli retention of the so-called “settlement blocs,” the areas where the large majority of Jewish communities are located in Judea and Samaria. Among the proposals that have been discussed to convince the Palestinian Authority to that possibility – considering the PA's demand that Israel completely withdraw to the 1948 armistice lines – are land swaps, handing over areas inside the 1948 armistice lines to the PA in exchange for the blocs.

In most discussions of the blocs, there are three that are generally mentioned – the Ariel bloc, which includes most of the towns of central Samaria; Maale Adumim bloc, encompassing eastern suburbs of Jerusalem; and the Gush Etzion bloc. But a report on Army Radio Thursday said that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was demanding that Israel retain a fourth bloc – the area around Beit El, north of Jerusalem.

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