Word: settlers
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...willing to enforce those. The 1967 borders are the basis of an international consensus over solving the conflict, but neither side trusts the other to make peace based on separation along that border. After all, Palestinian suicide bombers are striking deep inside Israel, not simply at its soldiers and settlers in the West Bank and Gaza. And during the Oslo years, the Israeli settler population in the West Bank and Gaza doubled. The wall Israel is building as a de facto border to keep out suicide bombers doesn?t follow the 1967 ?Green Line? border between Israel and the West...
...confidence in Abbas - lifting some closures, easing some travel restrictions, releasing some prisoners - are unlikely to be sustained, and have in many cases already been reversed. And all Palestinian militant groups will likely take the new upsurge as a cue to resume attacks both inside Israel and on the settler population in the West Bank and Gaza. The Palestinians claim they're simply avenging Israeli attacks on their leaders; the Israelis insist they're targeting key leaders in self-defense against terror plots. The resulting resurgence in violence leaves Abbas isolated in a political no-man's-land...
...Even many Israelis sniggered last year when President Bush used the term "man of peace" to describe Ariel Sharon, legendary warrior and champion of the settler movement who had spent most of the previous decade ferociously opposing the Oslo Accords. But Sharon has kept everybody guessing as to his intentions by speaking the language of peace, promising to make "painful concessions" after the Palestinians stop all violence - and, most recently, causing consternation even in his own party by uttering the taboo word "occupation" to describe Israel's rule over the 3.5 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. Such...
...occupation" remark, Sharon referred specifically to Israeli control over Palestinian cities, which were reoccupied during last year's "Operation Defensive Shield." There was no indication he was using the term in the manner understood by the Palestinians and the international community to refer to the Israeli military and settler control of territories captured by Israel in 1967. Indeed, one of the references Sharon wanted struck from the roadmap document was its reference to last year's Saudi proposal to the Arab League to offer Israel peace and recognition in exchange for withdrawal to the 1967 borders...
...both sides now need to commit wholeheartedly to peace. While the first priority is the elimination of terrorism on the Palestinian side, Israeli leader Ariel Sharon needs to implement his own policies for peace. The continuing construction of new settlements and new settler “outposts” in the West Bank severely undermines Israel’s commitment to peace. While this construction activity is in no way the moral equivalent of suicide bomber attacks, halting any and all settlement construction immediately is imperative to show respect for the Palestinians...