Opening salvos in what seems to be a new “war of attrition” over the peace process were fired even before U.S. Secretary of State James Baker returned to Washington from his successful peace mission.
On Monday morning, while Baker was still in North Africa, raising additional political capital for a proposed Middle East conference, six Jewish families settled into a former military outpost in Eshkolot, in the southern Hebron Mountains.
The latest West Bank settlement was set up to the cheers of the right wing and the growing frustration of the left.
The Israelis were letting the Americans know they do not intend to slow down the construction of settlements — despite criticism from the Israeli left, some quarters of the American Jewish community and, most clearly, the Bush administration.
In the Palestinian camp, the uprising’s Unified Command, guided by the Palestine Liberation Organization, succeeded in waylaying Israeli plans to hold free elections for the Bethlehem Chamber of Industry.
Under pressure from the PLO, local industrialists informed Israel’s Civil Administration in the West Bank that they would all resign unless it called off the elections. The military governor had no choice but to postpone the elections for two weeks.
The fuss around relatively unimportant local elections seemed intended to send a clear message to both the Americans and the Israelis that the PLO’s blessing is as necessary for minor elections as it is for Palestinian participation in any peace conference.
NO CHANGE IN GOVERNMENT POLICY
Eshkolot is the 137th Jewish settlement set up in territories captured by Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War. The plan to convert it from a paramilitary outpost to a civilian settlement was authorized by the government eight years ago.
Three years ago, a group of young families from Beersheba and other places in southern Israel organized to settle the site. For the past eight months, they have waited in a nearby military camp for the final green light.
Only on Monday were the first six mobile homes occupied. Water was brought in a tank, and electricity was supplied by generator.
Danny Naveh, media adviser for Defense Minister Moshe Arens, stressed Tuesday that the timing of the settlement had nothing to do with diplomatic developments and reflects “no change in the settlement policy of the government.”
But Knesset member Yitzhak Rabin of the Labor Party told army radio the timing of the settlement was “strange.” He said that as defense minister, he had prevented turning Eshkolot into a civilian settlement, because it had no security significance and “would not contribute to peace.”
At a session Tuesday of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Knesset member Yossi Sarid of the Citizens Rights Movement described the settlement decision as “a case of political terrorism.”
Foreign Minister David Levy of Likud said, however, that the settlement did not amount to a violation of any Israeli agreement with the Americans. “Israel has never committed itself to stop the settlements,” he said.
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