Israel has said it will pull its settlers out of the Gaza Strip by the end of 2005, however “everything Israel is doing in the West Bank today is aimed at increasing its ability to command the future there,” said Geoffrey Aronson, Director of Research and Publications at the D.C.-based Foundation for Middle East Peace and Editor of its bi-monthly Report on Israeli Settlement in the Occupied Territories. Addressing the increased Israeli settlement activity and Wall construction in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, Aronson argued that a comprehensive peace remains elusive despite Israel’s unilateral Gaza disengagement plan.
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