With West focused on Iran, Netanyahu moves to expand Israeli settlements

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is moving to expand Israeli settlements in the West Bank at a time when international attention is focused elsewhere, with President Obama gearing up for reelection and the West targeting Iran's nuclear program.

Last week, the Netanyahu government took a variety of steps that, taken together, amount to a significant strengthening of Israel's hold in the West Bank, the biblically resonant territory occupied in 1967, which Palestinians claim as the heartland for their future state.

For Netanyahu, who heads a right-wing coalition with a strong pro-settler contingent, it was a delicate dance of one small step back and six larger steps forward for settlements.

On April 4, the prime minister backed the evacuation of a house illegally occupied by settlers in the flashpoint city of Hebron, endorsing his attorney general's position that there was no legal argument for approving the settler takeover. That angered some among his hard-line constituency, including Danny Dayan, head of the Yesha Council that represents 300,000 settlers. ''It is intolerable that Jews cannot exercise their property rights simply because they are Jews,'' Dayan says.

To assuage this anger, Mr. Netanyahu declared the same day that he instructed the government to authorize three illegal outposts in the West Bank, despite Israel's having committed itself in the 2003 international peace blueprint, known as the "road map," to dismantle them. Hours later, tenders were issued for building a new neighborhood of 800 units in Har Homa, a settlement in annexed East Jerusalem, and for 180 new units in Givat Zeev, north of Jerusalem.

''It is all related, it is all part of the same package,'' says Yossi Alpher, former director of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University. ''He is able to say to his hard-core right wing supporters, 'I evacuated those people, but look what I'm building. We had to stand up for the rule of law but we're still building the Land of Israel and here's the proof.' It's quintessential Netanyahu: Speaking to please everyone, while facilitating the spread of settlements.''

Netanyahu's calculations

Also on April 4, Netanyahu announced his government would seek to preserve the unauthorized Ulpana outpost abutting the Beit El settlement just north of Ramallah despite its being built entirely on private Palestinian property. Netanyahu also said he was asking the government to begin procedures to legalize three other illegal outposts – Rekhelim, Sansana, and Brukhin, a move that would make them among the first new settlements authorized since the early days of the peace process in 1995 and could pave the way for further legalizations among the 96 outposts in the West Bank.

Netanyahu's statement was seized upon by residents here as a possible reprieve from a Supreme Court ruling to demolish six buildings housing 150 people in Ulpana by May 1 so the land could be returned to its Palestinian owners.

''I'm glad Netanyahu is thinking about our issue, I was very nervous we would have to move in the middle of the school year,'' says Alex Traiman, a documentary filmmaker who lives in Ulpana and is a father of three. ''It doesn't seem illegitimate to me to legalize the buildings,'' he says.

The red-roofed, three-story structures – which in recent months have become a pilgrimage site for right-wing politicians – were built 12 years ago. The government offered generous subsidies for people to move there. The homes are hooked up to electricity, sewerage, and phone service and have a good access road with neatly painted white parking spaces. Overlooking a hillside with purple bougainvilleas, the outpost has the feel of a suburban street.

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