Israeli settlements...

Previously, I wrote a post about the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. In it, I was very critical of the position that the Palestinian leadership would ever meet its promised goals within the process, and that position hasn't changed much since.

I do have to say this, though... in past peace efforts between Israel and the PLO/PA, the focus of the Palestinians has been either security or sovereignty, or both. Today, the focus is settlements and their renewed construction beginning today. I can't but feel this is a significant change in the PA position, and one that Israel can ill afford to ignore. Israelis making op-ed articles on this Jewish news agency site seem to feel its a significant issue, as well.

With the 2,400 new housing units slated to be built in Ariel (and had been delayed due to the moratorium) all intended to be used through the subsidized relocation of low-income, "anti-Zionist" Israelis, the focus seems to have moved away from a "hands off" approach by the Netanyahu coalition into a more directed approach. This move (if it is as "subsidized" as the authors say) seems to contradict previously stated goals of only allowing those who voluntarily go into the occupied territories to "begin a better life".

I still feel that, until such time as Abbas can show a concerted control over the entire PA, promises made by him concerning the PA as a political body are almost mute. Hammas will not deal under a Fatah-led agreement, and the chances of a Fatah-Hammas coalition seem pretty thin right now. However, I would think that it is in the best interests of BOTH Fatah and Israel to work as hard as need be to keep the situation in the West Bank as close to "peaceful" as possible... and to let Hammas continue to drowned in its own sweat in Gaza. I really don't see how this happens if Tel Aviv allows the new construction to begin again.

Has anyone found a solid, rational defense of the position that the construction needs to start again? What is the rational behind the effort to end the moratorium, without knowing what the possible lines of control are going to be between what is controlled by Israel and what is controlled by the PA? How is this effort helping the Israeli position in any way, shape or form?