Report on Israeli Settlement in the Occupied Territories

The settlement policies of the government of Benjamin Netanyahu remain a work in progress, three months after the defeat of the Labor government led by Shimon Peres. While initial government intentions for settlement expansion during the coming four years do not exceed Labor's settlement program, the idea of settlement is enjoying a renaissance and the settlers themselves are being welcomed once again into the Israeli political mainstream.

Ariel Sharon is very good at two things. He knows how to make headlines . . . and he gets things done.

"Quietly, quietly," begins an August 13 article in the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharanot, "without media scrutiny, 130 families have moved to the Golan Heights in the last three months. Thirty more families will have moved before the end of August. Why of all times now?"

Deteriorating relations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) have led to increasingly vocal Palestinian attacks on the Netanyahu government's settlement policies.

On July 30, U.S. President Bill Clinton and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak were asked about the Netanyahu government's settlement policies.

The policies announced by the Netanyahu government should increase the Israeli population in the West Bank and Gaza Strip by 50,000 settlers to 200,000 during the next four years. This increase is little different than the expansion recorded under the previous Labor government.