MIDDLE EAST: Israeli defence minister Shaul Mofaz said yesterdaythat the government would begin to invest in strengthening settlement blocs in the West Bank, now that it has completed its withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
"We must make every effort to direct resources to the development of the settlement blocs," he said during a tour of West Bank settlements.
In an interview in Newsweek, on the eve of his departure to New York where he will address the UN General Assembly tomorrow, prime minister Ariel Sharon said he planned to strengthen settlement blocs. "I don't think they'll be happy, but [ these] are the major [ settlement] blocs, and we must build . . . Even now there is construction," he said, when asked how the US might respond to such a move.