The Israeli government's recent announcement that it planned to build more than 600 homes in West Bank settlements is another stake through the heart of the "road map" for peace between Palestinians and Israelis. There is no reason to expand this construction -- other than a desire to create "facts on the ground" and undermine the prospects of a future Palestinian state.
Settlement expansion must be stopped; indeed, many of the existing settlements will have to be torn down if the road map is to be implemented. The world, and especially the United States, must make it clear to the Israeli government that this construction will not be tolerated.
Israel has been steadily building or expanding settlements in territory seized from its neighbors in the 1967 Six Day War. Expansion took off in the 1970s under then-housing minister Mr. Ariel Sharon. Today, some 400,000 Israelis -- and an estimated 230,000 Jews -- live in the settlements, either drawn by subsidies and other enticements or committed to the vision of a "Greater Israel" that mirrors the borders of the biblical state. A study by an Israeli newspaper concludes that Israeli governments have spent some $10 billion since 1967 on the settlements.