Israel’s Sharon Plans for More Settler Homes : Occupied areas: The hawkish housing minister’s proposal flies in face of statements Shamir made to Washington.

Ariel Sharon, Israel’s hawkish housing minister, has unveiled plans to increase the number of settler homes in the occupied West Bank, plans that contradict statements by Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, who told the Bush Administration that his government had not approved such proposals.

During a tour of West Bank settlements, Sharon said that construction of 13,000 housing units has been approved for the next two years, Israeli newspapers reported Friday. Shamir’s spokesmen refused to comment publicly on Sharon’s announcement, although a senior aide charged that it was an effort by Sharon “to embarrass Shamir and the United States.”

Last month, Shamir informed President Bush that no decision had been made to expand West Bank settlements and that denial was repeated on the eve of Secretary of State James A. Baker III’s visit to Israel on March 12.

During that visit, Baker urged Israel to freeze housing construction as a part of a series of confidence-building measures designed to reduce tensions with the Palestinians and open the way toward peace talks. On returning to Washington, Baker said that Israeli settlement of the occupied land was tantamount to annexation.

In the wake of the Persian Gulf War, the Bush Administration has embarked on a “two-track” policy to try to solve Middle East problems. One track would lead to ending the Arab world’s hostility toward Israel, the other to ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Bush proposes that Israel give up occupied land in the West Bank and Gaza Strip--home to 1.7 million Palestinians--as a formula for helping resolve the Palestinian problem.

In a Cabinet meeting last week, Sharon said that Israel should annex settlements in the West Bank and Gaza to preclude inclusion of the land in any peace settlement. He expanded on the theme during his West Bank tour, saying that Israel faces “political dangers” if the pace of Israeli colonization is not stepped up.

Sharon seized on damage caused to coastal Israeli cities by Iraqi missiles as a reason for spreading the population into the occupied territories. “We need strategic depth,” he argued. “People fled from civilian centers during the missile attacks.”

Israel promised Washington that it would make no special effort to settle Soviet immigrants in the West Bank and Gaza in exchange for U.S. loan guarantees to build housing for the newcomers. Last year, about 2,500 Soviets moved into the territories, a small percentage of the 200,000 newcomers who arrived in Israel last year but a significant portion of the estimated 10,000 to 15,000 Israelis who homesteaded in occupied areas.

A housing crunch inside Israel has made the West Bank and Gaza an attractive alternative for Israeli home buyers. Government subsidies make housing relatively cheaper there than in Israel proper. A two-bedroom apartment in the West Bank costs as little a $50,000, about half the price for a comparable unit in Jerusalem. Free land, expropriated from Palestinians and provided by the government, makes the difference.

The government also grants interest-free, $40,000 mortgages, and sums of up to $75,000 are available to large, needy families that require more housing space. The settlement population is reportedly approaching 100,000.

Sharon dismissed the oft-stated position of the Bush Administration that expanded settlements obstruct peace. “I think settlement . . . is a plan which advances peace and does not hurt it,” he said. “This settlement gives Israel a feeling of security. And in my opinion, as long as Israeli security is increased, it will be more possible to advance towards peace.”

The settlement program is a keystone of the ruling coalition’s platform and should not come as any surprise, he added. “This was all brought to the (parliamentary) Finance Committee three weeks ago,” he told the pro-government Jerusalem Post. “There is no secrecy here. I am working within government guidelines which call for settlement.”

Sharon has also proposed a doubling of Israeli settlement in the Golan Heights, which it seized from Syria during the 1967 Middle East War.