Obama administration officials in Israel to demand end to settlement building

Source: The Guardian

Middle East envoy George Mitchell reportedly discussing deal to allow completion of homes currently under construction

Chris McGreal in Washington and Ian Black -

Barack Obama has dispatched a clutch of senior American officials to Jerusalem to press his demand for an end to Jewish settlement construction and move along a diplomatic process aimed at imposing a blueprint for peace if negotiations fail.

Obama's Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, is reportedly discussing a deal with the Israeli leadership that would allow the completion of several thousand homes for Jewish settlers already under construction but impose a total halt to building once they are complete. Such an agreement would amount to a concession by Obama, who laid down an immediate and complete freeze on construction as a marker of a more interventionist policy at a testy meeting with the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, in Washington in May.

But American sources close to the negotiations say that getting Netanyahu to agree that no new construction can begin is an important step toward forcing a new diplomatic process that is no longer hostage to Israeli intransigence.

The diplomatic moves came as the Israeli military announced that the number of Jewish settlers on the West Bank has risen above 300,000 for the first time with about 200,000 more in East Jerusalem. About 2.5 million Palestinians live in the same territory.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/27/obama-administration-israel-settlement

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Does anyone know what Obama's strategy is, or is he just caving in?

They're going to build and build and build for another couple of years at a rapid pace and then say, "OK, we've decided not to build any more new settlements"

impose some sanctions on them as well.

Israel has a right to exist, just like the Palestinians. Why is that so hard for them to accept?

in power... I do hope it works

He got several thousand homes out of the deal.

What are the odds that after these houses get built, several thousand more homes suddenly need to get built too?

Bibi's learned Obama will do nothing more than weak-kneed lecturing.