Israel will tell U.S. President George W. Bush during his visit to the
region this week that it is committed to acting expeditiously to dismantle unauthorized West Bank settlement outposts, a spokesman for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Monday.
Israel has pledged repeatedly to take action on the outposts, generally small encampments settlers have set up in the West Bank.
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Olmert spokesman Mark Regev did not say how quickly Israel would take down the dozens of outposts.
Israel first pledged to remove West Bank outposts in 2003, under the U.S.-backed road map peace plan. That plan, however, stalled shortly after it was launched because Israel and the Palestinians failed to honor initial obligations.
But Regev said conditions have changed since Israel and the Palestinians relaunched peace talks at an international conference in Annapolis, Maryland, in November.
"What is new in the post-Annapolis process is that there isn't an expectation that Israel alone will implement its obligations under the road map in a vacuum," Regev said. "Rather, the expectation is that both sides will in parallel move forward in implementing their
obligations. Obviously, that framework makes the process more doable."
"Olmert," he added, "is committed to acting expeditiously on this matter."
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said he hoped Olmert would follow through. "I hope that he will dismantle the outposts ... so that we can make 2008 a year of peace and treaty, Erekat said. We'll judge it once we see it."
The government, however, is refusing to publish a database containing full details about the settlements and outposts. In response to a High Court of Justice petition on the matter, the Defense Ministry has argued that publication would harm state security and Israel's foreign relations.
Bush will arrive in Israel on Wednesday and visit the Palestinian Authority on Thursday. According to Palestinian sources, no trilateral meeting between Bush, Olmert and PA President Mahmoud Abbas is expected.
The U.S. leader has already made clear that the outposts are one of the main issues he plans to discuss with Olmert during his visit. In several media interviews in recent days, he has termed settlement expansion an obstacle to peace and stressed that Israel must honor its promise to evacuate illegal outposts.
Government sources said that Olmert has held a series of discussions on the outposts recently and has been briefed on the Defense Ministry's efforts to reach an agreement with the settlers on evacuating them voluntarily. "We've tried to reach an agreement, but so far the settlers haven't presented satisfactory options," one source said.
Olmert will tell Bush that Israel has no intention of accepting illegal settlement activity, the sources added. "There is also a domestic Israeli desire not to leave something illegal on the ground, and a way will be found to deal with this," one source quoted Olmert as planning to say.
Another source, who is involved with the outpost issue, said that Olmert plans to show Bush the proposed new rules on construction in the territories that the ministerial committee on outposts plans to adopt. But the source added that "there will be no outpost evacuations" before the Winograd Committee's report on the Second Lebanon War is published and "the political situation [after the report] becomes clear." The report is due out on January 30.
Palestinian sources said that Abbas will press Bush to demand that Olmert announce a complete freeze on settlement construction during his visit. Abbas will also raise this demand at a planned meeting with Olmert on Tuesday. In addition, Abbas intends to demand that Israel stop all military operations in the West Bank and Gaza.
Palestinian officials also hope that Bush will reiterate his commitment to seeing a Palestinian state arise before he leaves office a year from now.
During his visit to the PA, Bush will meet with Abbas, Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and members of the Palestinian negotiating team. He might also visit Jericho and Bethlehem, but the Americans have not yet confirmed this.
At their meeting on Tuesday, Olmert and Abbas will approve the format for final-status negotiations proposed by the heads of the respective negotiating teams, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and former Palestinian premier Ahmed Qureia.
Livni and Qureia will meet Monday to finalize the format. As reported in Haaretz Sunday, the main innovation they are proposing is for the three core issues - borders, Jerusalem and refugees - to be handled by a single committee headed by themselves, rather than by three separate committees, as had been the norm in previous rounds of talks.
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