Report on Israeli Settlement in the Occupied Territories

Four months after the plan was finalized, the Quartet's "Elements of a performance-based road map to a permanent two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," has been formally placed on the diplomatic agenda.

The newly released "Road Map," for all its shortcomings, is the first major initiative in three years for resuming serious Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. President George W. Bush has expressed his "personal" commitment to the process. That is good news, since without strong, sustained leadership by the president, the Road Map will become just another failed effort in conflict management, not a plan for ending the conflict.

The Israeli elections held in 1999, 2001, and 2003 charted increases in the number of settlers registered to vote as well as in the actual number of settlers voting in the 140 West Bank and Gaza Strip settlements where polling took place.