Settlement Policy Remains Intact: Existing Sinai Settlements to Be ‘thickened’; West Bank Settlement

The Cabinet announced today that is saw no reason to take new decisions with regard to settlement policy. An official communique to that effect was released after today’s Cabinet session, the second within a week devoted largely to that issue.

Cabinet Secretary Arye Naor told reporters afterwards that there were no plans for future settlements in Sinai but there would be a “thickening” of existing settlements there. On the West Bank, he said, the government will continue settlement activity within the confines of military bases.

The Cabinet’s deliberations appear to have resulted in a victory for the hardliners, led by Minister of Agriculture Ariel Sharon, over the moderates who reportedly have been urging a freeze on settlement activity as long as the negotiating process continues. The latter are said to include Defense Minister Ezer Weizman and ministers of the Democratic Movement for Change.

The Cabinet debated settlement policy at a special session last Monday at which it sat as a ministerial security committee. Although discussions held in that guise are classified, it became apparent, when the matter was deferred until today’s regular weekly session, that the earlier debate had been inconclusive. Naor refused to say if today’s decision was unanimous. “That is what was decided,” he told reporters.

Political analysts here believe today’s Cabinet announcement was a cover for further operational decisions. Those decisions, they said, would probably be linked to the progress made by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Alfred L. Atherton in his attempts to secure Israeli and Egyptian agreement to a joint declaration of principles for resumption of their direct talks. Premier Menachem Begin’s talks with President Carter in Washington next month are also expected to have a bearing on the government’s future settlement policies.