Israel Warned Over New Settlements

U.S. Secretary Of State Rice Tells Israel To Cease Construction Plans During Negotiations

(CBS/AP)  U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Monday that Mideast peace talks are "moving in the right direction" although she warned Israel that it should stop new settlement activities that could upset progress.

Rice's comments came after she held talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the end of a three-day Mideast mission with the goal of achieving an agreement before President Bush leaves office next January. Earlier Monday, Rice met separately with both the Israeli and Palestinian negotiators in Israel and said that she was impressed by the seriousness of their work.

"I think it's all moving in the right direction," Rice said at a news conference with Abbas, saying that things are proceeding toward the goal of reaching some sort of peace agreement by 2009 that would lead toward the creation of a Palestinian state.

"I fully believe it is a goal we can reach," Rice said.

Asked, however, about Israel continuing to approve construction of new housing in contested territory, Rice criticized the close U.S. ally.

"Settlement activity should stop - expansion should stop," Rice said.

Israel has approved the construction of almost 1,700 homes in contested territory since renewing peace talks with the Palestinians at a U.S.-hosted summit in November, an Israeli watchdog group reported Monday.

Although the survey contained little new information, Peace Now said Israel was undermining negotiations by repeating one of its "worst mistakes" - building on disputed land while holding peace talks.

The U.S. has been urging Israel to halt construction in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, areas that Israel captured in the 1967 war but are claimed by the Palestinians for a future state. Israeli construction projects in the disputed areas have sparked a series of crises in the peace negotiations, prompting the Palestinians at one point to suspend negotiations.

In its report Monday, Peace Now said Israel's Defense Ministry has approved plans to build 946 homes in the West Bank since last November's peace summit in Annapolis, Maryland. Peace Now said the government has also given final approval for at least 750 homes in east Jerusalem since talks renewed.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert denied that West Bank building had been stepped up. "All the reports of dramatic construction projects in the (Palestinian) territories are not true, and it's not true that we're building in violation of commitments that were made," Olmert told a meeting of his Kadima Party.

Olmert also said Israel would continue to build in east Jerusalem and in heavily Jewish areas of the West Bank that Israel wants to keep in a final peace agreement.

"This is going on within the framework of negotiations, and the negotiations will continue to progress," he said.

An additional obstacle clouding negotiations concerns captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal said Shalit is alive and being well treated, CBS News correspondent Robert Berger reported. Shalit was kidnapped from his army base on the Gaza border nearly two years ago.

So far Israel has refused to meet Hamas's price for a swap: more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Shalit. While Israel has carried out lopsided prisoner swaps in the past, this one poses a dilemma. Hamas is demanding the release of top terrorists responsible for deadly suicide bombings, Berger reported.

[swwils]

Secretary Rice needs to back off,Israel knows what they are doing they have been messing with those people over their long before she was born.We will need all their support when the rest of the wars break out.Which is coming soon.Why the build up around Pakistan,because the big one is started.

[trishab4]

MrAbbas is trying something new with CondomMice. Look at the pic and you''ll understand. She seems to like what he''s doing in her back... males are males are males are males... says it all.

[trishab4]

Israel Warned Over New Settlements
U.S. Secretary Of State Rice Tells Israel To Cease Construction Plans During Negotiations

-CondomMice is suggesting Israel could maybe stop the construction of New colonies During the negotiation, but that''s all only during the negotiation. After negotiating a peace agreement thy can break the Accord and skrrew it again, so the confrontation takes on again, until all Palestinians are kicked out from their land.

[rickstas]

Isreal does not want peace - it wants total domination.

[cnjcc]

How much has it cost Israel already in money and lives and constant danger and strife?. How about trying something different? Build those 1,400 homes on the land claimed by the Palestinians, and then offer the homes and the land they sit on to the Palestinian people, asking nothing in return ... that would certainly be an attention getter.

[quetzal0666]

Want Real Peace Progress?
Send U.S. Troops to stop the Zionist Genocide,
Invade Ishreal if they threaten the U.N.
Send them back to Europe.....

[cfin5]

I thought that we were not to do business with terrorists like Mahmoud Abbas. That dude has the dishonor of firing the first shot the PLO ever fired at Israel. Yeah, do as we say, not as we do huh? I mean, he is just like that Ahmadumbnutjob in Iran. He was one of the terrorists that stormed our Embassy in Tehran and held our citizens for ransom. Cost us, thanks to President Carter what 11 billion dollars to get them back?

[j-whitman]

underdogus,,,, What have you done for them other than promote the violence, genocide & arparthied ???

[hungryfreak0]

What about American settlements in Iraq? The war is for Israel? Which oil company is Israeli? BP? Exxon? Royal Dutch Shell?

Of course Israel had a plan to divide Iraq. Saddam was going to nuke Israel and Iran.

[hungryfreak0]

South Africa? Had South African apatied been prfitable for the US, it would still be there. The US just demonized it to cut into EU profits. The Arab-Israeli has been profitable to the Ottomans, then the nazis and England, then US and USSR, now the US and the fake war on terror. Now the US sends aid to go to subsidies to design electronics...

America sold out to the Fedreral Reserve and Israel sold out to the US. Americans don''t want to offend their banker masters addmitting 9/11 was an inside job and Israel doesn''t offend te US by calling them nazis.

[underdogus]

we''''ve done for them Posted by jh6379 ..WE? what have YOU done for them?? whine, and whine some more?

[cbsblogger]

Why is the racist Jewish homeland even permitted?

The US and the UN embargoed S Afrrica for years because they did exactly solution in that area and it should be a merger of Palestinieans and Jews, just as S Africa is a merger of blacks and whites and just as the USA is a merger of many more etthno groups.

[leftyintexas]

Take on buiding those settlements. Keep on digging your own grave a little more deeper.