Israel must dismantle some of its more than 100 illegal West Bank outposts in order to maintain good relations with the United States, Deputy Prime Minister Haim Ramon said Saturday. “To my great regret, we have not done what we should have done for a long time concerning the outpost settlements,” Ramon, a close ally of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, told Israeli public radio. “We have to act as soon as possible. We will have to take decisions in one or two weeks.” According to the 2003 internationally-drafted roadmap which forms the basis of the current US-sponsored peace process, Israel is required to freeze all settlement activity and dismantle outposts established after March 2001. “These decisions are difficult, but we will have to dismantle these outposts, at least some of them, because it troubles our relations with the United States,” Ramon said. “Everything damaging those relations impacts Israeli national security.” US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said neither side is doing enough, and Israel has come under international criticism in recent weeks for continued settlement building. Mideast envoy Tony Blair, reiterated this week that Israel must ease travel restrictions to enable the Palestinian economy to recover. Ramon said Israel is torn between security concerns and trying to improve the daily lives of Palestinians in the West Bank. “The military insists on security arrangements,” he said. “On the other hand, the broader view requires us to take certain risks, and I am among those who believe that it would have been possible to reach certain agreements with the Palestinians on civil affairs.” Ramon said an Israeli go-ahead for the two industrial zones, near the West Bank cities of Hebron and Jenin, “is vital for a change of atmosphere in the West Bank.” The parks would create thousands of badly needed jobs. One of the projects, near Hebron, is led by Turkey, and both are sponsored by Blair. Earlier this week, Blair said progress would have to be made soon. “Otherwise, it is difficult for people to see that the political process has real credibility,” Blair said. Concerning the settlement outposts, Ramon said it was time for the Israeli defense establishment to end drawn-out negotiations with settler leaders on the fate of the outposts, which have been set up over the past decade to try to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state. Israel must act quickly, Ramon said. “If the secretary of state (Rice) says they should have been dismantled yesterday, we cannot leave them for a few more months. One week, two weeks, in the very near future, we need to make a decision (on the outposts),” he said. The chief Palestinian negotiator, meanwhile, called on the US to press Israel harder to halt settlement expansion. “What is needed from the Americans ... is a demand to stop all settlement activities,” said the negotiator, Ahmed Qureia. __
