PM won't discuss removing settlements

The Israeli government will not discuss the removal of any settlements until the next elections to the Knesset in October 2003, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon angrily declared yesterday at the weekly cabinet meeting, banging his hand on the table to emphasize that there would also be no such discussion after those elections if he is reelected.

The subject was raised when he was asked by Labor Party minister without portfolio, Ra'anan Cohen, why the government does not adopt IDF officer recommendations to evacuate isolated settlements, as reported on Friday night's Channel Two News program. It quoted unidentified "senior IDF officers" as saying isolated settlements should be evacuated, especially in the Gush Katif area in Gaza. The officers, said the station's military analyst, argued that the isolated settlements have become tremendous security burdens, requiring a regiment of soldiers to protect each one.

The Council for Security and Peace, an organization of some 1,000 former senior officers from the IDF, Shin Bet security service, Mossad, and the police believes there are some 40 such settlements in the West Bank and, in its plan for a unilateral withdrawal from the territories, says all of Gaza's settlements should be evacuated, except in the northwest corner of the strip.