MERIP Media Resource List, April 12, 2005

AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEWS on the following topics:
- Israel and US positions on Israeli settlements
 
Background Note: Israeli Prime Minister Sharon said to President Bush in their meeting on April 11, 2005 that, "Regarding the unauthorized outposts, I wish to reiterate that Israel is a society governed by the rule of law. As such, I will fulfill my commitment to you, Mr. President, to remove unauthorized outposts. As to settlements, Israel will meet all its obligations under the road map."
 
CHARLES D. SMITH
Charles D. Smith is the author of Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, now in its fifth edition. He is professor of Middle East history at the University of Arizona. Commenting on Sharon's statement about removing outposts, Smith said today: "Ariel Sharon's distinction between illegal and legal settlements, apparently accepted by the Bush administration, is a ploy he created to evade obligations under the road map. That document calls for all settlements created after March 2001, when Sharon took office as prime minister, to be dismantled. Sharon objected and created a distinction between 'authorized' and 'unauthorized' settlements, meaning that the former, now deemed 'legal,' could stay. Given that Sharon has been open in declaring to Israeli journalists his intention of continuing settlement building, this exercise approaches the status of a charade, apparent Bush firmness on the subject to the contrary."
 
GLENN ROBINSON
Glenn Robinson is associate professor in the Department of Defense Analysis at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California and author of Building a Palestinian State: The Incomplete Revolution (Indiana University Press, 1997). Robinson said today: "The massive planned expansion of Israel's largest settlement in the West Bank, Ma'ale Adumim, will make the establishment of a viable Palestinian state impossible, rendering the road map and a two-state solution moot. It will do this by effectively cutting off East Jerusalem from other Palestinian lands, something no Palestinian leader could accept as part of a peace agreement. While he talks of promoting the road map, Sharon is actually making it impossible to implement."
 
Additional resources on Israeli settlements :
 
Human Rights Watch -- "Israel: Bush Should Lay Down the Law on Settlements, Sharon Must Be Told That US Cannot Support Violations of International Humanitarian Law," April 11, 2005
 
MERIP -- "What are Settlements?"
 
MERIP -- "The 94 Percent Solution: A Matrix of Control," by Jeff Halper, Fall 2000 issue of Middle East Report
 
MERIP -- "The Militarist and Messianic Ideologies," by Neve Gordon, July 8, 2004, Middle East Report Online

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