Israel mulls settlement freeze amid settler building frenzy

Yahoo - US President Barack Obama praised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday for considering a new settlement freeze and voiced hope of a deal to get Middle East peace talks back on track.

… The comments marked a stark turnaround from last Tuesday in Jakarta when Obama led global condemnation of Israel's plans to build 1,300 settler homes in east Jerusalem and warned it risked wrecking the fragile peace process.

The new freeze would not cover construction in east Jerusalem but would include all building in the West Bank begun since September 26 when the previous 10-month moratorium expired, a source close to the negotiations said.

Under the deal, Washington would pledge not to seek another moratorium, provide another three billion dollars worth of F-35 stealth fighter jets, and block international efforts to force a political settlement on Israel.

… Meanwhile, settlement watchdog Peace Now published a report Sunday showing that in the seven weeks since the end of the moratorium, Jewish settlers had begun building work on 1,649 new homes.

Figures showed that since the freeze ended, new homes had been started in 63 settlements and, in more than two-thirds of cases, settlers had begun laying the foundations.

"It turns out that the settlement freeze was no more than a 10-month delay in the construction and the settlers managed to fill in the gap very fast," Peace Now said.

"The government of Israel must renew the freeze in a way that will stop all settlement activity, including the projects that started in the last few weeks, until there is a final agreement between the Palestinians and Israel regarding the borders and the future of the settlements." Read more