Peace Now: settlements to expand 100%

Peace Now released a report today saying Israel has plans for a mere 73,300 new homes in the West Bank, including East Jeruslem. That's a 100% increase in the number of current number of settlers -- about the same rate of increase between the moment the Oslo swindle was signed, up through Camp David in 2000. The unsurprising result: popular uprising, brutally quashed by the colonizers.

15,000 housing units are already approved, a further 58,000 units await the rubber stamp. 5,722 have been approved in E. Jerusalem. The two biggest settlements, Ma'ale Adumim & Ariel will double in size. Ha'aretz:

Peace Now says that a new right-wing government presents the danger of "expanding settlement growth at a rapid pace... with the clear intention of destroying the possibility of a two-state solution."

They are very observant. Anyhow most Israelis have no interest in a "two-state solution;" a Feb 18 Angus Reid Poll says 51% of Israelis oppose an "independent Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria." Only 32% support the idea -- and note the way the question is phrased, Gaza and E. Jerusalem aren't even on the table in terms of handing over sovereignity to Palestinians.

Bibi says this will all be "natural" growth -- one wonders what unnatural growth of settlements looks like? Anyhow Peace Now points out 17,000 homes are planned to be built "outside" the current footprint of the Gush Etzion "settlement bloc." 19,000 units will be built beyond the "separation barrier," including in the Hebron area.