ISRAEL IS CREATING MANY MORE FACTS WHILE ARAFAT'S PEOPLE AND THE ARABS TALK, TALK, TALK

Israel continues to take major steps designed to shrink, isolate and control the Palestinian areas forever. The policy is termed "unilateral separation" and it is linked to bringing about a so-called "Palestinian State" that serves Israeli interests, making everything worse than ever for the Palestinian "natives". The overall reality is that the Israelis are furiously taking steps to pen-up the Palestinians onto separated reservations -- once called "Palestinian population centers" -- everywhere surrounded by the Israeli army. The "State" that Israel is bringing into being is not one that will improve life for the Palestinian people, and it certainly will not be a real sovereign State -- not even on the approximately 10 percent of historic Palestine that the Israelis are using the Americans to try to convince the world is a "reasonable settlement". The Palestinians, as usual, are terribly represented by the corrupt and inept Arafat "Authority" and remain unable to even explain, not to mention stop, what is happening to them. This article from Israel's leading newspaper, rather than from any Palestinian publication, helps explain the situation:

ISRAEL'S INTIFADA TACTICS AMOUNT TO SEPARATION - GREEN LINE FORTIFICATIONS START TO LOOK LIKE LEBANON BORDER
By Amos Harel

[Ha'aretz 8 January 2001]:
The destruction being wrought by the Israel Defense Forces in the Gaza Strip has been at the center of media coverage in recent weeks. Trees were uprooted, agricultural fields destroyed, houses were razed on both sides of roads leading to settlements.

However, a short visit to the area between Ariel and Qalqilyah in the West Bank shows that by comparison, what the IDF has been doing in Gaza is mere child's play. Inside three months, Israel has completely altered the topography of the region.

This is the season of the bulldozer in the territories. Day and night they charge around at full speed, working on several sites simultaneously.

According to IDF charts, the area of Qalqilyah - including territory inside the Tapuah Junction in the east to the Green Line in the west, and from Kedumim in the north to Beit Aryeh in the south - is the area in the territories most densely populated by Israelis, excluding the outskirts of Jerusalem.

There are dozens of settlements inside this territory. Some of them, like Ariel and Beit Aryeh, will probably remain under Israeli control as part of some future agreement with the Palestinian Authority. The fate of others, such as Kedumim, is uncertain.

A few days after the outbreak of the Al Aqsa Intifada in October, the Brigade Commander of the area, Colonel Eitan Avraham, assisted by the Public Works Authority, embarked on carving out a new trans-Samaria highway, to the south of the old one. The road was under construction for two years, but in a few days Avraham completed a route to enable the residents of Ariel and the environs to travel to the Green Line without harm. Immediately the new road was opened, the old one that carried tens of thousands of vehicles daily was blocked by a dirt wall, just east of the settlement of Elkana. In practice these actions have led to Israel "annexing" nearby settlements, such as Ornit.

The checkpoint at Ornit, on the Green Line, was removed, one of five such positions the IDF moved eastward, as Ha'aretz reported yesterday. The road from Elkana to the Green Line is open only to Israelis and passage for Palestinians from Bidiya and Masha is now blocked.

Soon, a new six-lane highway reaching the Tapuah junction will enable settlers to reach the Dan region in thirty minutes without seeing a single Palestinian. A direct road linking Alfei Menasheh with the Green Line will also be completed, south of Qalqilyah. Dirt roads that will become asphalt roads at a later date are being readied to connect settlements to the east.

We have not yet considered the changes in the character of IDF outposts. Anyone who spent any time in southern Lebanon will know the image of Karkom, which guarded the northern border. Similar changes are being implemented along the whole Green Line. At least seven positions have been moved inside the territories - Ornit, Rentis (near Rosh Ha'ayin), between Kiryat Sefer and Maccabim, Hossan-Beitar (near Bethlehem), Tna-Omarim, and Shma' (south of Hebron). These changes will enable Israelis to travel between most of the settlements along the Green Line, without any contact or friction with Palestinians.

One of the immediate effects, as Elkana residents report, is the value of their homes rising compared with homes in other settlements.

However, the changes are also the first signs of a separation plan being put in place. This is not being carried out on the political initiative of local IDF commanders, but three months into the Intifada, the IDF is "dressing-up" its tactics as strategy.

Senior military sources do admit the changes on the ground have long-term implications.

This is how the IDF prepares for the eventuality of being given the order, from the political authority, to unilaterally separate Israel from the Palestinian Authority. Bypass roads, checkpoints moving eastward, blocked Palestinian roads - all in the same direction, separation.

The IDF's defensive preparations are also being built on the principle of "blocks of territory." The settlements have been divided along "block" lines and "regional operational commands." These are linked in a regional defensive network which supplemented by settlement residents.

More than a year ago, the IDF adopted the term "chain link." This refers to a series of ground based actions prepared in anticipation of an all-out confrontation with the Palestinians. These are broader than mere topographic alterations and involve "biting" strategic positions out of Area A that is under full PA control, in case of total conflagration in the territories.

In the mean time, attacks against Israeli targets in the Qalqilyah area are relatively few. This may be a partial explanation for the relative restraint settlers in the area have shown so far.

Another reason may be a sense that the IDF is in relative control of here and its efforts to improve the security and the conditions under which the settlers live are plainly evident.

It is doubtful if the quiet will endure much longer. Another deterioration of things in the territories will bring renewed Palestinian efforts to carry attacks along the roads, perhaps even inside the Green Line.

Israeli towns and villages along the Green line - including Kochav Yair, where both the prime minister and the chief of staff live - are exposed to attack from Qalqilyah and the environs. Pushing the Palestinians into the corner will almost certainly result in a number of attacks from their side.