Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - The next time Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announces he is willing and ready to negotiate a two-state solution with the Palestinians, I hope readers will remember what he has just done.

In a speech last week, he said that his Likud party “is ‘committed to settlement in the Land of Israel,’ a nod to a growing constituency of settlers and their supporters in the party’s ranks” [“Netanyahu strengthens his base within Likud,” news story, Feb.

According to The Post’s coverage, his government also “approved new housing subsidies and loans for people who move to more than 500 communities in designated ‘national priority areas,’ including 70 West Bank settlements.”

The meaning of these moves is clear. Mr. Netanyahu and his party have no intention of stopping the growth of settlements in the West Bank, no matter what he might pronounce to be seen as a man of peace and reconciliation. The “peace talks” that Israeli leaders say they support are a farce, and the Palestinians realize that.


* Washington Post