Unsettled Claims

U.S. and Israeli officials trade angry barbs
over an expanded West Bank Jewish presence.

JAMES D. BESSER
Washington Correspondent

Washington

trip away the diplomatic and
political padding, and the
acrimonious debate between
Washington and Jerusalem
over Jewish settlements that's exploded
recently is about one word: trust.
But increasingly, key Clinton
administration officials are saying they
have little of it for the Netanyahu gov-
ernment. Confidence isn't much
stronger in the reverse direction.
U.S. officials say Israeli Prime
Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has
played them for chumps, especially
because of what they say were a series of
private assurances on Jewish settlements
during October's Wye River conference. •
In the long run, this week's hot
rhetoric and bruised feelings are not
likely to seriously undermine U.S.-
if Israeli-Palestinian
Israel relations
negotiations get back on track after
the upcoming Israeli national elec-
tions. Harder to gauge is the impact of
recent settlement construction on the
negotiations themselves.

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concentrated mostly around Jerusalem
As Israeli officials are quick to point
and near the Green Line. It did not
out, settlements are not a new bone of
fragment the Palestinian entity sup-
contention.
posed to emerge from the peace talks.
Indeed, Presidents Carter, Ford and
But today, critics say, the Netanyahu
Bush all knocked heads with Jerusalem
government has dra-
over the issue. And by
the standards of some of Above: With the Palestinian- matically changed the
controlled city of Bethlehem
thrust of the settle-
those fights, even last
in the background, a land
ments program.
week's tough talk by
surveyor marks plots at Har
Officials in
State Department offi-
Homa in Jerusalem Sunday.
Washington increas-
cials was mild.
ingly see the new and
Even the Rabin and
expanded settlements as part of a
Peres governments expanded settle-
deliberate effort to provoke the
ments after the 1993 Oslo accords.
Palestinians and alter the demograph-
But American officials chose to down-
ics of the West Bank, making the
play it because they felt the Israeli gov-
long-delayed permanent status talks all
ernment was moving forward in the
but impossible.
peace process.
That perception was reinforced in
Besides, settlement activity then

Increase in West Bank/Gaza
Jewish residents in past year

14 percent

Number of new units

8,608

Number of units being built

3,814

Source: Peace Now

the fall when Foreign Minister Ariel
Sharon urged Jewish settlers ro "grab (\
more hills. We'll expand the area;
whatever is seized will be ours."
Sharon's statement flew in the face
of Israeli denials that they were
engaged in a systematic effort to build
new settlements and just allowing for
the natural growth of old ones.
The rhetoric escalated last week when
State Department spokesman James
Rubin directly accused the Netanyahu
government of lying about settlements.
Speaking after a meeting between
Defense Minister Moshe Arens and
Secretary of State Madeleine, Albright,
Rubin said that the Netanyahu govern-
ment is "acting and expanding settle-
ment activity beyond contiguous areas,
inconsistent with their commitments
or their words to us. They've said they
would not do that repeatedly.
Israeli officials insisted they weren't
violating any agreement because the
settlements in question \ vere not offi-
cially sanctioned. Arens, speaking to a
Washington think tank, said, "They
are not settlements. They are not
going to last and I don't think they in
anyway are going to change the situa-