Israeli Minister Opposes Aid to West Bank

An Israeli Cabinet minister on Saturday announced his opposition to the government’s controversial decision to increase economic aid to Jewish settlements in the West Bank, saying he believes the army would be unable to give adequate protection to settlements built near Arab population centers.

Internal Security Minister Avigdor Kahalani, considered a centrist in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-religious coalition, said he had voted against Friday’s Cabinet decision to restore large subsidies for Jewish communities in the occupied territories. Kahalani cast the sole dissenting vote.

Only a policy of separating Arab and Jewish communities will “ensure that the number of troops needed to protect each settlement is smaller than the number of settlers,” the minister told Israel Radio.

Kahalani’s concerns echoed warnings reportedly given Netanyahu by several senior security officials before the Cabinet vote. Israeli television news quoted Gen. Ami Ayalon, the director of the Shin Bet, the security service, as telling the prime minister that any bid to expand settlements could “start the countdown” to new violence.

The Cabinet decision two days after the drive-by killing of a Jewish settler and her son returned the settlements to the “national priority” status they enjoyed under previous Likud Party governments.

The special status, which aims to attract new settlers to Jewish enclaves in the occupied territories, was suspended by Netanyahu’s Labor-led predecessors, who viewed settlement expansion as an obstacle to the peace process with the Palestinians.

As the U.S. State Department and European Union leaders voiced concern over the settlement aid and the deteriorating peace process, the government defended its decision.

“The government stands behind its policies to aid the settlers who stand bravely every day against waves of terror,” Netanyahu spokesman Shai Bazak said in a statement.

The Palestinian Authority, which met into the early hours Saturday, issued a statement warning that the Israeli government “aims to destroy the peace process and return the region to the brink of an explosion.”

Nabil Shaath, the minister of planning in Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian Authority, described the Israeli Cabinet’s action as the most dangerous yet taken by the Netanyahu government.

“It represents a potential disaster,” Shaath said. “This is about ending the Palestinian dream for a better political future.”

The issue of halting the growth of Jewish settlements in the occupied lands is viewed as the essence of the peace process by Palestinians, who hope to establish a state of their own in the West Bank. Although Friday’s action did not authorize the construction of new settlements, many Palestinians said the move to entice more settlers to the West Bank would lead to new construction.

In recent days, settler leaders have hinted that if the government does not authorize construction of new settlements soon, they may begin to build new communities on their own. Such a move would inevitably lead to confrontation with the Palestinians.

“This expansion and settlement creates a situation where an independent Palestinian state becomes impossible,” said Palestinian journalist Ghassan Khatib. “And if there is no way to have a Palestinian state, there is no way to have peace.”