Israel has announced it will limit settlement construction for ten months. The announced freeze does not include construction in areas of the west bank that have been annexed to Israel’s Jerusalem municipality or projects that are already underway. This falls short of the demands of the Palestinians. They have called for a complete halt of settlement construction before they’ll return to peace talks. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said that limiting settlement construction shows Israel’s commitment to peace, but some settlers say past construction freezes haven't done anything to move peace talks forward.
"This is a far reaching and painful step. We authorize it because of our deep desire to move forward towards peace."
"It showed in the past that all types of freezing, expulsions that we had a couple of years ago, none of these have done anything to propel the peace process further. And I think this is just a way for our government to appease Obama who is now insisting on tying everything together, and I really see no reason at all."
For www.hxen.com, I'm Kevin Anderson.
