Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
News

White House Is Cool to Settlement Plan

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration is rejecting Jerusalem’s demand for American approval of a plan to strengthen several key blocks of Jewish settlements in exchange for a complete Israeli pullback from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon wants to fortify large blocks of Jewish settlements in the West Bank that Sharon envisions being annexed by Israel in the future, Israeli sources said. Sharon, one Israeli diplomat said, is asking that the Bush administration relax its opposition to Israeli development of what is widely referred to in Israel as “consensus settlements,” in particular Ma’ale Adomim, east of Jerusalem; Ariel, northeast of Tel Aviv, and the Etzion Block, south of Jerusalem.

Envoys of Sharon pressed the issue earlier this week in Washington, but failed to obtain an agreement during talks with senior advisers to President Bush about Israel’s unilateral disengagement plan. The administration, according to Israeli and American sources, is resisting any formal change in its longtime opposition to Jewish settlements in the territories.

The Israeli delegation, headed by Sharon’s bureau chief Dov Weisglass and National Security Council director Brig. Gen. Giora Eiland, spent five hours in the White House Monday, discussing details of Sharon’s plan with Bush’s national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and a team of senior U.S. officials. The Israeli officials also met later with Secretary of State Colin Powell.

“We are talking about a full [Israeli] evacuation of Gaza, maybe also of some remote settlements in the West Bank,” as well as a pullout of Israeli military forces from broad areas of the West Bank, said an Israeli diplomat. Still, he added, the administration refuses to budge on remaining settlements.

The Israeli delegation left Washington Tuesday without reaching an agreement with U.S. officials. The two sides did agree, however, to meet twice more before Sharon’s planned visit to Washington next month, sources said. In these meetings, the Israeli representatives will share more details of Sharon’s disengagement plan, which according to Israeli press reports is still a work in progress.

Sharon is also asking for the administration to maintain its support for Israel’s refusal to negotiate with the Palestinian Authority under its current leadership, Israeli diplomats said. Jerusalem fears that the administration might shift its position as Washington’s European allies increase their calls for an immediate resumption of negotiations between Sharon’s government and the Palestinian government of Ahmad Qurei.

The Bush administration, sources said, agrees that Israel cannot be expected to negotiate with a Palestinian Authority dominated by Yasser Arafat. The White House, however, does expect Israel to coordinate its moves with the Palestinian Authority to avoid creating power vacuums in the territories, to ensure orderly transfer of command, and to maintain the P.A.’s image as the sole legitimate government in the Palestinian areas. Washington is worried about the continuing erosion of the Palestinian Authority’s political and economic power, as well as its loss of popular support in the territories.

Israeli sources said that all measures taken by the Sharon government will be coordinated with the Palestinian Authority — even if they are decided upon unilaterally — and that any steps involving Israeli withdrawal from areas in Gaza along the Egyptian border will be coordinated with Cairo.

American officials see Sharon’s unilateral disengagement plan as a bold move that may eventually help launch final status negotiations. They are concerned, however, that his “Gaza first” initiative will become “Gaza last” or “Gaza only,” which could actually damage long-term-peace efforts. They want to make sure that the plan will help pave the way for a viable Palestinian state, not block it, said Aaron Miller, who advised the last six secretaries of state on Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, and is now the President of Seeds of Peace, an organization promoting reconciliation between youth from societies in conflict.

Miller said that an American endorsement of Israeli efforts to consolidate its grip on specific settlement blocks would be “something that mortgages the future and ultimately will undermine any remaining prospect for a two-state solution.

“I think that is something no administration can be in a position to sanction,” Miller said. To approve such a step would mean, he added, “crossing a huge red line.” Miller also warned that the United States, by accepting an unqualified unilateral approach from Israel, would be “turning on its head a half a century of negotiations which have in fact — more often than not — resulted in improving the situation.” America’s challenge, he said, is to modify Israel’s one-sided initiative in a way that would encourage the Palestinians and Arab governments to come to the negotiating table.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.