What Other Secret Surprises Exist? This Is Nonsense!

 Olmert approves American plan for big new
Palestinian town on West Bank

August 2, 2007, 4:52 PM (GMT+02:00)



To be situated 20 km south of Nablus and 35 km north of Ramallah on the
road linking them, the town is planned for 30-40,000 Palestinian
inhabitants in the first stage, expanding in the second to 70,000 ten
years hence. It will be located in Area B under Israeli security
control.

Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert has kept the project, which
represents a major strategic restructure of West Bank geography, under
his hat. He did not submit the American plan to the cabinet, or even
the security-political ministerial forum, before giving the go-ahead to
the visiting US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, Wednesday night,
Aug. 1.

DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s sources report that the new town site will encompass
the Palestinian villages of Qabalan, Oseria and Qudela and straddle
Trans-Samaria Highway 505 opposite Tapuach junction. The US planners
intend the new town to provide territorial contiguity between Nablus
and Ramallah. At the same time, it will cut off Israeli villages in the
Jordan Valley from the settlement blocs in Samaria.

The new Palestinian urban entity, which our sources reveal Olmert first
learned about in his talks with President Bush on June 19, will be the
first Arab town to go up in the region in 1,500 years, since the
foundation of Ramleh.

During his White House visit, Olmert learned that the Americans regard
the Palestinian town as a primary project for consolidating Mahmoud
Abbas’ government. It is designed to provide tens of thousands of jobs
for West Bankers, whose unemployment rate has soared to 70 percent
since the Palestinian uprising was launched against Israel in 2000.
American town planners and architects hired by the US government have
prepared initial diagrams after secret visits to the site. During her
current tour, Rice showed the plans to the Israeli prime minister,
Abbas and Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad.

The problem still outstanding is financing. It was hoped that the
Saudis would put up part of the initial investment for the foundations.
When he brokered the Mecca accord for a Palestinian unity government
earlier this year, the monarch pledged $250 million in aid to the
Palestinians. However, this hope was dashed, when King Abdullah flatly
refused to hear of aid to the Abbas regime in his talks with the US
secretary in Jeddah Tuesday.