Officials said the Netanyahu government has
been bracing for heightened tension with the Obama administration. They said the White House was leading a pressure campaign on
the Jewish state to withdraw from parts of the West Bank in wake of Obama's
scheduled address to the Muslim world on June 4.
Since then, officials said, Israel has been pressed by leaders of both
the Democratic-controlled House and Senate to take measures against the
300,000-member Jewish community in the West Bank. The congressional leaders
have warned the Netanyahu government that the United States was becoming
impatient with Israel's policy of sustaining Jewish residential areas in the
West Bank.
Ya'alon said the Netanyahu government has pledged to dismantle Jewish
communities deemed unauthorized. But the minister, a former chief of staff,
pledged that Israel would not agree to a freeze on Jewish construction in
the West Bank.
"We will not halt the construction in the settlements within the
framework of natural growth," Ya'alon told a television interview on May 23.
"There are people here who are living their lives, raising children. Housing
is required. It wasn't housing that has prevented peace."
Officials said Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak have agreed to
dismantle at least 26 unauthorized Jewish communities in the West Bank. They
said the military and police launched the campaign in late May with the
demolition of the tiny community of Maoz Esher in the northern West Bank.
Other ministers have argued against the demolition of unauthorized
Jewish communities while ignoring what they termed illegal Arab
construction. An Israeli military report said authorities have not moved
against unlicensed Arab construction in the West Bank for at least 18
months.
"[Jewish] outposts do not have to be dismantled now," Interior Minister
Eli Yishai said. "There is rampant illegal construction by Palestinians and
Israeli Arabs. If we go for enforcement, then enforcement has to be unified,
just and equitable."
Officials said Netanyahu has argued that Israel already agreed to limit
Jewish construction in the West Bank in negotiations with the previous
administration of President George Bush. In 2005, they said, the two sides
agreed to an understanding in which Israel would continue to construct
housing in eastern and northern Jerusalem as well as in Jewish communities
organized in blocs in the West Bank.
"We do not intend to build any new settlements, but it wouldn't be fair
to ban construction to meet the needs of natural growth or for there to be
an outright construction ban," Netanyahu said during a Cabinet meeting on
May 24.
For his part, Barak has rejected the U.S. demand for a halt to all
Jewish construction in the West Bank. The defense minister said the
government would permit what he termed "natural growth" in Jewish
communities.
"There cannot be a situation whereby a father of two who bought a
54-square-meter apartment and then decides to enlarge his family would be
forbidden from adding two rooms because of an order by the United States,"
Barak said. "This makes no sense."
Still, Ya'alon did not rule out harsh American pressure during the next
visit by U.S. envoy George Mitchell. Mitchell was expected to arrive in
Israel soon after Obama's address to the Muslim world, issued in Cairo,
Egypt.
"We'll see whether their [U.S.] declarations become actual demands,"
Ya'alon said. "We won't let them threaten us."
