Fateful Triangle

Washington’s “Peace Process”929Only a few days before Netanyahu was elected, dozens of Palestinianstried to block Peres’s bulldozers paving the way to the plannedsettlement at Har Homa. Ben-Eliezer also announced other buildingplans that appear to be more significant, particularly those to the east ofJerusalem (Plan E-1). These developments will effectively split the WestBank into two cantons when Ma’ale Adumim is incorporated into“Greater Jerusalem,” in accord with the plans announced andimplemented by the Rabin-Peres Administrations after the Osloagreements and now pursued by their Likud successor. While attentionwas focused on the Har Homa/Jabal Abu Ghneim constructions, falselyattributed to Likud initiatives, Defense Minister Yitzhak Mordechaiannounced that Labor’s E-1 program would be implemented, with newhousing construction and road-building. Knesset Member MichaelKleiner, the head of the expansionist “Land of Israel Front” (“Hazit EretzYisrael”), greeted the announcement with appreciation, observing thatthis plan, which “was the initiative of the former Housing MinisterBinyamin Ben-Eliezer with the authorization of Yitzhak Rabin,” is “themost important” of the Front’s demands, more so than Har Homa.“Fuad” Ben-Eliezer also explained that “Fuad does everything quietlywith the complete protection of the Prime Minister,” using such terms as“natural growth” instead of “new settlements” when he implementsLabor’s policies of expanding Greater Jerusalem to include Ma’aleAdumim, Givat Ze’ev, and Beitar as the “first circle” of settlementssurrounding Jerusalem, to which another “chain of settlements” is to beadded in a second circle.According to Labor dove Yossi Beilin, the Rabin government “increasedsettlements by 50%” in “Judea and Samaria” (the West Bank)after Oslo, but “we did it quietly and with wisdom,” whereas you,Netanyahu, “proclaim your intentions every morning, frighten thePalestinians and transform the topic of Jerusalem as the unified capitalClassics in Politics: The Fateful TriangleNoam Chomsky