Critics may assail them on other grounds, but no one can deny that they are legal. In fact, the 1922 Mandate for Palestine encourages them.
By Eric Rozenman
President Obama asserts, seconded by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, that "America does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements" in the West Bank. Both have praised the 10-month freeze on new residential building -- excluding eastern Jerusalem -- that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced late last month. Netanyahu now calls for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to resume negotiations or take the blame for lack of progress when the "one-time-only" freeze expires. Abbas' precondition -- adopted after Washington's pronouncements -- is that all Israeli construction, including in eastern Jerusalem, must cease permanently.
Comment: It is first factually incorrect to say that Israeli towns and cities in Samaria and Judea are illegal. Anyone who persists in this mantra is intentionally misleading you and/or realize that you don't know history and therefore can be manipulated. Second, given these territories remain disputed, the percentage of area within these disputed areas is less than 5% of the entire area.Third, the current discussion about these areas and the possibility of "peace" are PC by multiple factions. Fourth, until the Israeli government finally stops playing into the political hands of the West and the Islamic countries and refers to this as Judea and Samaria, refers to the enclaves of people properly as towns and cities and finally calls them Israeli citizens, the ploy of using the "settlements against us will continue unabated.
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