Settlement Sprouts on West Bank : Israel: Wine and defiance flow in the occupied territory ahead of Baker’s visit.

Sparkling wine and defiance flowed freely Tuesday as militant Israeli expansionists celebrated the birth of a new government-backed settlement on the West Bank, an event timed to coincide with this week’s visit of U.S. Secretary of State James A. Baker III, who has urged Israel to stop settling the disputed lands.

The settlers set up 14 trailers under cover of night, and a dozen families began moving their belongings in by afternoon. Soldiers provided security and restrained reporters from visiting the site for four hours.

“Everything is from the government budget; everything is approved,” said Daniella Weiss, a spokeswoman for the Gush Emunim (Faith Bloc) settler movement, which organized the group of families that moved in. “No doubt the frequent visits of Baker to Israel put us on a much quicker pace. We feel that the only right answer to Baker’s pressures on Israel is building new settlements.”

Reporters in London asked Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, who is on an official visit, about the new settlement and American opposition to it. Shamir gave a verbal stamp of approval: “We don’t think this has anything to do with the peace process. As we have explained many times to our American friends, it doesn’t make a difference if there will be in the disputed territories 100 settlements or 120 settlements, 100,000 people or 120,000 Israelis.”

Ground was cleared for the settlement last week, and the government has made no move to stop it.

In Israel, official spokesmen were reluctant to claim responsibility and denied that the government put up money for the project.

“I guess we’re going to take a lot of bashing on this,” remarked Yossi Olmert, the government spokesman. He said that the government approved plans for the Revava settlement seven years ago and that the decision had nothing to do with the current government.

Defense Ministry spokesman Danny Naveh said that if the government approved the project, then the army, which tightly controls the West Bank and Gaza Strip, would routinely grant permission for the settlers to move in. “We had nothing to do with this,” he said of the ministry and his boss, Moshe Arens.

Privately, however, some officials began to point fingers at Ariel Sharon, the housing minister, who has actively promoted settlement. “Some people in government are afraid of peace talks and might try to sabotage them,” said one. A spokesman for Sharon’s ministry said the settlement was a “private enterprise project.”

When Baker came to Israel last month on his first Middle East peace-seeking tour, he urged Israel to stop the spread of settlements. The Bush Administration asserts that settlements undermine chances for peace between Israel and Palestinians. About 1.7 million Palestinians live under Israeli military rule in the West Bank and Gaza, and they are pressing to create an independent state.

About 90,000 Israelis have moved onto the land with the acquiescence of a series of governments since Israel occupied the territory after the 1967 Middle East War, and the Shamir government wants to keep the land under Israeli control.

On his second trip, Baker downplayed evidence of settlement expansion and new land confiscations. He accepted the official line that Shamir’s Cabinet had not yet made any decision to accelerate settlement growth.

Israeli officials are bracing for another round of criticism from Baker and wondered aloud whether he will put some teeth behind the habitual declarations of displeasure.

Baker is coming to push forward his plan for a regional peace conference among Israel and Arab states and between the Israelis and Palestinians. The plan is hung up on a variety of issues: the agenda, whether Israel will be required to give up occupied land and who will represent the Palestinians.

Palestinians view the settlements as creeping annexation, and the Israeli presence in this section of the West Bank, near the large settlement of Ariel, affirms this fear.