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Prisoner-settlement exchange means no free lunch

Negotiations are slated to last nine months, but if by the end of the year no progress is made, the Obama administration will present an American final status agreement draft.
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at a conference in Tel Aviv University October 29, 2013. A planned release of 26 Palestinian prisoners has provoked feuding within Israel's governing coalition, already under strain from U.S.-brokered peace talks. Jewish Home, led by Naftali Bennett, then tried to get a proposal to freeze further prisoner releases past a ministerial committee, where members Netanyahu's Likud party voted it down on Sunday.    REUTERS/ Nir Elias (ISRAEL - Tags: POLITICS) - RTX
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A deal over prisoners in exchange for settlements is no longer just journalistic speculation. The Oct. 30 announcement to the Knesset plenum by Knesset member Ofir Akunis of the implementation of the plan to build 1,500 housing units in Ramat Shlomo, over the Green Line in Jerusalem, and to buy land for immediate construction of hundreds of apartments in West Bank settlements, was made virtually in the same breath as the announcement of the release of 26 Palestinian prisoners.

The release of 26 prisoners in August 2013 was also accompanied by an official announcement of the buying of land for the immediate construction of 1,200 new housing units in Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem and in the settlements. Palestinian protest against the expansion of the settlements and the Israeli right’s outcry against the release of prisoners have become part of the ritual called “the diplomatic process.” This time, as in the last round, the spokesperson of the US State Department mumbled some words of reproach against the expansion of settlements.

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