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News

Pressure Grows on U.S. to Define Policy on Settlements Issue
The Clinton administration is faced with an ongoing crisis in relations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA). This crisis has less to do with any particular incident than with the growing Palestinian recognition that the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is an unreliable partner in the process established by his immediate predecessors. Read more

Har Homa: Netanyahu Wins First Round of the Battle for Jerusalem
"The battle for Jerusalem has begun," declared Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu days before construction began on the new settlement community of Har Homa in the southeast corner of annexed East Jerusalem. "We are now in the thick of it, and I do not intend to lose." Read more

Har Homa at a Glance

To Our Readers

Settler Population Grows to More than 160,000 In 1996--A 9.4% Increase
Nine thousand Israelis moved to settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip during 1996, according to Israel's Ministry of the Interior. In a report published by Peace Now, the growth of the settlements was augmented by 4,661 births, producing an extraordinary rate of natural population increase of more than 3 percent. Read more

Short Takes from State
The following statements on settlement-related issues were made by President Bill Clinton, Vice President Al Gore, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, and Nicholas Burns, the Department of State spokesman. Read more

Settlement Timeline

Labor's Views Regarding Permanent Status
The following excerpts are from a March 7, 1997, interview in Ha'aretz with Yossi Beilin, a minister in the Labor governments of 1992-96 and the principal Israeli architect of the Oslo process. Read more

Back Panel Quote
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Read more