Israel Defense Chief Says Rogue Settlements Must Go
Israeli troops removed two Jewish settler outposts in the West Bank on Sunday after Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer vowed to dismantle rogue settlements vulnerable to the Palestinian uprising.

While Ben-Eliezer zeroed in on unsanctioned settlements, the army relaxed its clampdown on West Bank hotbeds of militancy by lifting a curfew in Bethlehem. But more than 500,000 Palestinians remained confined to home elsewhere.

A spokesman for the umbrella YESHA Council of Jewish settlements said two of the 10 outposts Ben-Eliezer slated for removal by Monday were dismantled peacefully on Sunday. Israel Radio said their inhabitants left before the army arrived.

Ben-Eliezer said the trailer clusters were too isolated to be protected.

Deputy Defense Minister Dalia Rabin-Pelossof told Israel Radio earlier that settlers had agreed to take down the first 10 designated outposts by Monday, and another 10 in coming days.

``If they do not, I understand from the defense minister that he has signaled he will evacuate them by force,'' she said.

Israeli peace activists opposed to settlements estimate there are at least 60 outposts -- often just a few caravans -- perched on hilltops throughout the West Bank.

Analysts said Ben-Eliezer's move against settler caravans, whose proliferation has helped inflame Palestinians, aimed to defuse a backlash in his center-left Labour Party over the current reoccupation of Palestinian cities.

Ben-Eliezer spearheaded the army's West Bank offensive in response to two Palestinian suicide bombings that killed 26 people in Israel on June 18 and 19, almost two years into a Palestinian revolt for statehood.

About 145 settlements with 200,000 people have sprouted with Israeli government approval in the West Bank and Gaza Strip since their capture in the 1967 Middle East war.

But a scattering of others has been established without government permission, often near sites where settlers have been killed in Palestinian attacks.

Settlers claim a biblical right to the land. The Palestinians and most countries regard the settlements as illegal and the overriding obstacle to Middle East peace.

Soon after taking office in March 2001, Sharon's government pledged under U.S. pressure not to found new settlements. But his rightist coalition said existing settlements could expand to accommodate ``natural growth.''

The 145 full-fledged settlements resemble affluent U.S. suburbs that stand out from the shabby, concrete-block cities, towns and villages where three million Palestinians live.
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-mideast.html