Israel just keeps on expanding

The Israelis are the first to claim that they don't have anyone on the Palestinian side with whom to negotiate some sort of settlement of the on-going dispute between the Israelis and Palestinians.

True or not, the undoubted fact is that Israel, contrary to international law and repeated calls from many directions not to, keeps on expanding in the building of settlements on the West Bank. Certainly Israel's actions are totally counter to being conducive for the Palestinians to want to sit down and talk with the Israelis.

Prompted by a revelation by Peace Now building and settlement-expansion is up, dramatically, this year from last year, Condi has, with a limp wrist, called on the Israelis to desist.

AFP reports in "Rice criticises settlements but sees progress in Mideast talks":

"In the report published on Tuesday, the Peace Now group said the Israeli housing ministry "initiated 433 new housing units during the period of January to May 2008, compared to just 240 units during the period January to May 2007."

The number of tenders for construction in the settlements has meanwhile increased by 550 percent, from 417 housing units in the period surveyed compared to 65 units in the same period last year.

In Arab east Jerusalem, occupied and annexed by Israel following the 1967 Six Day War, the number of tenders has increased by a factor of 38, the group said, from just 46 units in 2007 to 1,761 in 2008."

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