The problem here, is: What does "expand a settlement" mean?
The land already zoned out for Ma'ale Adumim is larger than all of West Jerusalem. So the Israeli government can contend that it isn't expanding the settlement, it is merely building homes within the existing boundaries of the settlement. (plus the fact that Israel will tell you Ma'ale Adumim is a friggin' neighborhood of Jerusalem and not a settlement).
It is a game and the Bush administration knows damn well.
After all, the US has already agreed with Sharon on the issue of Israel keeping the large settlement blocs in any final status agreement. In fact, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stated on Israel Radio in April that “no one should say there’s no agreement between our two governments. […] there is; it was reached on April 14 last year [2004] and it’s clear […] the ‘existing major Israeli population centers’ will have to be taken in account in any final status negotiations.” And, moreover, as reported, “Rice […] made it clear that the term ‘Israeli population centers’ refers directly to the ‘large settlement blocs.’”
So Bush can keep making "no settlement expansion" statements to pretend to the world (but mostly himself) that he is being evenhanded, and with a wink and a smirk, Israel will continue to plod on with its "creating facts on the ground."
Bryan
-------- http://www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/news_service/middle_east_full_story.asp?service_id=8679
Israel to build more homes in key West Bank settlement 6/2/2005 4:50:00 PM GMT
The Israeli government announced on Thursday that it will build 22 additional homes in its largest West Bank settlement, a week after the U.S. President George W. Bush demanded the Jewish state to stop the expansion of all existing settlements in the occupied West Bank.
The Israel Lands Administration, a government agency, released a tender inviting bids for the purchase of 22 plots for building single-family homes in the West Bank settlement of Maale Adumim, near Jerusalem.
Israeli human rights activists denounced the building tenders, calling them a clear violation of the "roadmap" peace plan.
Last week, Bush reiterated his call on Israel to stop the expansion of all settlements in the West Bank in line with the “roadmap”, which has been largely deadlocked since it was launched two years ago.
The roadmap peace plan, brokered by the U.S., EU, UN, and Russia, is a phased plan that aims at ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict within two years and establishing a viable independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, lands Israel seized in the 1967 Middle East war.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon plans to evacuate all 21 settlements in Gaza and 4 other enclaves in the West Bank in August.
But he made clear that he is determined to keep large settlements in the West Bank, including the three large settlement blocs of Maale Adumim, Gush Etzion and Ariel.
Sharon also said that Israel doesn’t have any plans for any further withdrawals after its planned pullout plan.
Palestinians believe that Israel’s settlement expansion in the West Bank is aimed at denying them the land they need for their future state.
Meanwhile, Israel started releasing around 400 Palestinian detainees as part of a ceasefire agreement reached between Sharon and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in February.
The prisoners being released on Thursday are being taken by bus from Israel to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli army said the detainees would be freed at four locations in the West Bank and at the Erez crossing between Israel and Gaza.
Palestinian officials criticized the prisoner releases as insufficient, saying that most of the released prisoners had already served at least two-thirds of their sentences.
Palestinian authorities have been demanding Sharon to release 5,000 of the estimated 8,000 Palestinians detained in Israeli jails.
In other developments, Palestinian officials said that Abbas underwent a minor heart procedure at a hospital in the Jordanian capital, Amman.
Sources said Abbas had an angioplasty, a routine procedure where a small balloon is inserted to clear out clogged coronary arteries.