QUOTE
Jewish settlers glad to see Olmert go
Reuters
Tue Sep 9, 2008 9:23am EDT
Some 200 families live in private homes in Maale Shomron, some 15 km (nine miles) from the "green line" marking the West Bank's border with Israel. Surrounded by a barbed wire fence, the hilltop settlement is guarded by Israeli soldiers.
Dayan said that on a clear day he and his wife can see the coastal city of Tel Aviv from their bedroom window, and any withdrawal from the West Bank would be a "sure recipe for war".
"There are only two options. Either my wife and I share this bedroom, or terrorists of Hamas or Islamic Jihad move in. There wouldn't be any peace-loving Palestinians taking over," he said.
Citing past violence along the Gaza-Israel border, Dayan predicted that areas of the West Bank handed to the Palestinians would become launching grounds for rocket attacks on the centre of the Jewish state.
Palestinians see settlements on occupied land, deemed illegal by the World Court, as obstacles to peace and to the creation of a viable state of their own.
Many of the 500,000 Israelis living in areas Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war, including Arab East Jerusalem, claim a biblical birthright to the West Bank.
Dayan said the settler population, boosted by newcomers and births, was growing at an average of five percent a year and that nearly a dozen homes were under construction in Maale Shomron.
"We aren't an obstacle to peace, we guarantee peace," he said.
"I live here so this place will be Israeli. Someday, once it becomes clear Judea and Samaria will remain in Israeli hands, we may move back to Tel Aviv. For now, it is important to live here," Dayan said.
Reuters
Tue Sep 9, 2008 9:23am EDT
Some 200 families live in private homes in Maale Shomron, some 15 km (nine miles) from the "green line" marking the West Bank's border with Israel. Surrounded by a barbed wire fence, the hilltop settlement is guarded by Israeli soldiers.
Dayan said that on a clear day he and his wife can see the coastal city of Tel Aviv from their bedroom window, and any withdrawal from the West Bank would be a "sure recipe for war".
"There are only two options. Either my wife and I share this bedroom, or terrorists of Hamas or Islamic Jihad move in. There wouldn't be any peace-loving Palestinians taking over," he said.
Citing past violence along the Gaza-Israel border, Dayan predicted that areas of the West Bank handed to the Palestinians would become launching grounds for rocket attacks on the centre of the Jewish state.
Palestinians see settlements on occupied land, deemed illegal by the World Court, as obstacles to peace and to the creation of a viable state of their own.
Many of the 500,000 Israelis living in areas Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war, including Arab East Jerusalem, claim a biblical birthright to the West Bank.
Dayan said the settler population, boosted by newcomers and births, was growing at an average of five percent a year and that nearly a dozen homes were under construction in Maale Shomron.
"We aren't an obstacle to peace, we guarantee peace," he said.
"I live here so this place will be Israeli. Someday, once it becomes clear Judea and Samaria will remain in Israeli hands, we may move back to Tel Aviv. For now, it is important to live here," Dayan said.
QUOTE
By Allyn Fisher-Ilan
MAALEH SHOMRON, West Bank (Reuters) - The head of the main Jewish settlers organization in the occupied West Bank will not be sorry to see Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert resign in a corruption scandal.
Olmert was elected in 2006 on a platform to remove dozens of isolated settlements in the West Bank, while keeping major Jewish enclaves in a future peace deal with the Palestinians.
Maale Shomron, where YESHA settlement council chairman Dani Dayan lives, is outside the barrier Israel is building in the West Bank and a candidate for removal under the Olmert proposal.
The Israeli leader's imminent departure means "his plan has now been tossed into the garbage pail of history", Dayan, 52, told Reuters in an interview.
Olmert, facing indictment for corruption, has said he will step down once his Kadima party chooses a new leader in a September 17 election. He denies any wrongdoing.
But Dayan, an Argentina-born businessman and teacher, said: "I'm definitely not calm. We can always end up making another colossal mistake."
He noted that Israel's 2005 pullout from the Gaza Strip, in which 8,000 settlers were removed, was followed by the rise of Hamas Islamists, who now control the territory.
MAALEH SHOMRON, West Bank (Reuters) - The head of the main Jewish settlers organization in the occupied West Bank will not be sorry to see Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert resign in a corruption scandal.
Olmert was elected in 2006 on a platform to remove dozens of isolated settlements in the West Bank, while keeping major Jewish enclaves in a future peace deal with the Palestinians.
Maale Shomron, where YESHA settlement council chairman Dani Dayan lives, is outside the barrier Israel is building in the West Bank and a candidate for removal under the Olmert proposal.
The Israeli leader's imminent departure means "his plan has now been tossed into the garbage pail of history", Dayan, 52, told Reuters in an interview.
Olmert, facing indictment for corruption, has said he will step down once his Kadima party chooses a new leader in a September 17 election. He denies any wrongdoing.
But Dayan, an Argentina-born businessman and teacher, said: "I'm definitely not calm. We can always end up making another colossal mistake."
He noted that Israel's 2005 pullout from the Gaza Strip, in which 8,000 settlers were removed, was followed by the rise of Hamas Islamists, who now control the territory.
Damo