Report on Israeli Settlement in the Occupied Territories

A couple of months before Prime Minister Rabin's assassination, I was interviewing Dan Meridor, a former Likud minister of justice and one of the more thoughtful "Young Princes"--as the new generation of Likud leaders is known--when the telephone rang.

To Rabin's and Peres' credit, the agreement does not create irreversible facts in three critical areas--responsibility for security, the fate of the settlers, and Jerusalem. Less than a third of Judea and Samaria goes over to Arafat. If the accord hits serious snags, Israel will still hold key positions--the West Bank hills, Greater Jerusalem, the Jordan Valley, and control over the roads. The key to the future of the territories is still in Israel's hands.

The following is an extended excerpt of a October 5, 1995, speech by Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin to the Knesset in support of the ratification of the Israeli-Palestinian interim agreement.

Following are excerpts from the Israeli newspaper Davar, July 14, 1995.

The Clinton administration has notified Congress that Israel will suffer a $60 million "settlement penalty" reduction from the $2 billion in loan guarantees Washington made available in October. In 1994, the administration exacted a $311.8 million penalty. For fiscal year (FY) 1993 the sum was $437 million. This year, the Clinton administration assessed Israel's expenditures on settlements during that year at $303 million, but then restored $243 million of the deducted amount to fully compensate Israel for costs incurred in its redeployment in the Gaza-Jericho regions.