Peace Now has once again stirred up a hornets' nest by coming out with another list of what it calls "unauthorized outposts." The extremist left-wing organization deigns to show that Israeli authorities are lying to the Americans by understating the amount of newly settled locations. Security officials say it appears that Peace Now counts even abandoned buses as "outposts."
The official Defense Ministry list of outposts in Judea and Samaria includes 28 locations, of which 7 are no longer relevant. Of the remaining 21, three of them are Migron, near Psagot, with no fewer than 43 families; Givat HaRoeh opposite Eli, with 17 families; and Givat Assaf, on the junction between Beit El and Ofrah, with 14 families.
The Peace Now listing is almost twice as long, and includes several that are listed as "unpopulated," some that are being used by the army, and others that are recognized neighborhoods of existing communities. One of the Peace Now "outposts" is "The Eli Coach," a container serving as a cafe, while another one is an abandoned structure on a key junction on the Jerusalem-Tapuach highway.
Professors for a Strong Israel stated today, "Peace Now is a movement that denies not only Zionism, but even its own name. It talks of peace, but incites to civil war."
The Yesha Council stated that, contrary to the Peace Now report, there are no new outposts near Ofrah. "We are proud of the flourishing growth of the settlement enterprise," the Council statement reads, "which succeeds despite both terrorism and the brotherly hatred of Peace Now."
Two emissaries of U.S. President George Bush recently met with Defense Minister Sha'ul Mofaz on the matter of the outposts, indicating that Israel was not dismantling the outposts quickly enough. Brig.-Gen. (ret.) Baruch Spiegel met with US Ambassador Dan Kurtzer last night to come to an agreement on the exact number of outposts. Minister Mofaz ordered aerial photos be taken of Judea and Samaria every two weeks in order to monitor the situation.
One of the towns on the Peace Now list - though not on the Defense Ministry list - is Kidah, east of Shvut Rachel and Shilo. It has grown recently to nine families, with four more planning to move in, and many development plans on the burner. Kidah is part of the Shvut Rachel bloc, which also includes Aish Kodesh (7 families), and Adei Ad and Givat Achiyah (close to 20 each). Asked where the families come from, a Kidah spokesman by the name of Itamar said,
"Almost all of them come from other Yesha communities. That's in general how it works: families from Yesha move to the new, pioneer communities, while families from within pre-1967 Israel move to the established communities to take their place. This way we're always advancing our lines."
The official Defense Ministry list of outposts in Judea and Samaria includes 28 locations, of which 7 are no longer relevant. Of the remaining 21, three of them are Migron, near Psagot, with no fewer than 43 families; Givat HaRoeh opposite Eli, with 17 families; and Givat Assaf, on the junction between Beit El and Ofrah, with 14 families.
The Peace Now listing is almost twice as long, and includes several that are listed as "unpopulated," some that are being used by the army, and others that are recognized neighborhoods of existing communities. One of the Peace Now "outposts" is "The Eli Coach," a container serving as a cafe, while another one is an abandoned structure on a key junction on the Jerusalem-Tapuach highway.
Professors for a Strong Israel stated today, "Peace Now is a movement that denies not only Zionism, but even its own name. It talks of peace, but incites to civil war."
The Yesha Council stated that, contrary to the Peace Now report, there are no new outposts near Ofrah. "We are proud of the flourishing growth of the settlement enterprise," the Council statement reads, "which succeeds despite both terrorism and the brotherly hatred of Peace Now."
Two emissaries of U.S. President George Bush recently met with Defense Minister Sha'ul Mofaz on the matter of the outposts, indicating that Israel was not dismantling the outposts quickly enough. Brig.-Gen. (ret.) Baruch Spiegel met with US Ambassador Dan Kurtzer last night to come to an agreement on the exact number of outposts. Minister Mofaz ordered aerial photos be taken of Judea and Samaria every two weeks in order to monitor the situation.
One of the towns on the Peace Now list - though not on the Defense Ministry list - is Kidah, east of Shvut Rachel and Shilo. It has grown recently to nine families, with four more planning to move in, and many development plans on the burner. Kidah is part of the Shvut Rachel bloc, which also includes Aish Kodesh (7 families), and Adei Ad and Givat Achiyah (close to 20 each). Asked where the families come from, a Kidah spokesman by the name of Itamar said,
"Almost all of them come from other Yesha communities. That's in general how it works: families from Yesha move to the new, pioneer communities, while families from within pre-1967 Israel move to the established communities to take their place. This way we're always advancing our lines."