Occupation now, occupation forever?
By Bradley Burston, Ha'aretz Correspondent
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Never was the American imprimatur to Israeli military operations more evident than on Tuesday, when Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld broke the mold of ostensible U.S. even- handedness by voicing public doubts that Israel could afford to cede what he pointedly called "so-called occupied territory" to a Palestinian Authority he said was entangled with terror.
Speaking to Pentagon workers two days before senior PA cabinet ministers were to arrive for talks with senior American officials, Rumsfeld went against the grain of blanket U.S. opposition to the existence of settlements, traditionally condemned by Washington as a main obstacle to peace. Rumsfeld, appearing to endorse an indefinite Israeli stay in the territories, declined to call on Israel to abandon settlements.
Indicating that he does not share the Bush administration's view of Israel's presence on the land, Rumsfeld said, "My feelings about the so-called occupied territories are that there was a war. Israel urged neighboring countries not to get involved in it once it started. They all jumped in and they lost a lot of real estate to Israel because Israel prevailed in the conflict."
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