Netanyahu Pledges New WBank Settlements

Local Editor

"Israeli" Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised leaders of settlements municipal councils that he would reconsider a halt on approving new settlement projects in the West Bank.

"You have no shield greater than I. I fight for you." Netanyahu assured the top Zionist settlers in a Tel Aviv meeting late Wednesday, according to "Israel's" Haaretz daily.
"But there are international constraints and you know them," Netanyahu maintained.

Palestinian Authority negotiators insist that the "Israeli" settlement building must stop before a comprehensive agreement can be reached.
Haaretz reported earlier that the "Israeli" government has been promoting and issuing tenders for new settlement projects in Occupied East al-Quds, despite the announced settlements' halt pending negotiations.

"Everyone tells me all the time that the talk is stuck because of the settlements. I reply to them that that's not true and that the real reason is the [Palestinian] refusal to recognize "Israel" as a "Jewish" "state"," Netanyahu said during Wednesday's meeting.

The talks between "Israeli" and the Palestinian negotiators - which resumed in Washington last July after a nearly three-year hiatus - collapsed last month after an April 29 deadline expired without a breakthrough.

The talks hit a snag one month earlier after "Israel" refused to release 26 Palestinian prisoners despite earlier pledges to do so.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team