Official says U.S. guarantees make him confident Jews won't build in biblical territory
TEL AVIV – Not a single Jewish home will be built in the strategic West Bank without approval of the Obama administration and the Palestinians, Nimer Hamad, senior political adviser to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told WND.
In spite of recent reports Israel will build 50 new homes in a northern West Bank Jewish community, Hamad said U.S. guarantees make him "confident" such housing will not actually be constructed.
"The guarantees we received from the U.S. make us confident all the talks about the 50 houses in Adam are only a piece of meat (Defense Minister Ehud) Barak threw to the settlers," Hamad said.
"I am not excited about these reports. I am confident no single housing will actually be built outside an agreement between the Palestinians, the Americans and the Israelis," he said.
Barak's Defense Ministry approved the construction of 50 new homes in Adam, an existing West Bank community, as part of a wider plan to absorb residents slated to be evicted from an area called Migron.
Migron is considered an illegal outpost since it wasn't constructed with Israeli government approval. The U.S. has demanded all illegal outposts be removed.
The new houses in Adam would defy a demand by the Obama administration that Israel halt all settlement activity, including natural growth, in apparent abrogation of a deal made by President Bush in 2004.
Barak was in New York yesterday to meet with U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell in an effort to agree on a compromise formula on settlement construction.
Sources in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office told WND that Barak favors a "temporary freeze" of Jewish communities and a declaration that the issue be resolved in talks with the PA.
Top ministers in Netanyahu's cabinet, such as Vice Premier Moshe Yaalon, the strategic affairs coordinator, oppose a settlement freeze, fearing it will become permanent, according to sources close to Yaalon.