A row of Israeli homes in the illegal West Bank settlement of Efrat, south of Bethlehem. (IMEU)

UN resolutions, the Oslo Agreement, and negotiations over Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian territories occupied in 1967 have all been replaced by buzzwords, such as, "settlement freeze" and "confidence-building measures." Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has skillfully managed to get the international community spinning its wheels over issues that have been dealt with decades ago. During a recent press conference with Angela Merkel, the German chancellor has urged Israel to stop settlement construction in the occupied Palestinian territories and resume the Middle East peace process.

"I made clear that the Federal Republic of Germany believes that progress on the issue of settlement building, a stop to settlement building, is an important building block and a condition for re-launching the Middle East peace process," she said.

Her comments came after Netanyahu held talks with George Mitchell, the US Middle East envoy, amid tension between Washington and Israel over the issue of settlements. Israel's ever-expanding network of settlements in the occupied territories is viewed by many members of the international community as the most significant obstacle to the creation of a viable, sovereign Palestinian state.

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The "settlement freeze" idea was born in 1977 after the Camp David Summit; in a letter to President Jimmy Carter, then Prime Minister Menachem Begin offered a three month moratorium on establishing new settlements rather than the longer moratorium preferred by Washington. The freeze idea was also raised by President George H. W. Bush without success in the context of a U.S. agreement to provide loan guarantees to Israel in the early 90s. The idea was also prominent among the confidence-building measures sought by Palestinians before and after the Madrid conference in 1991.

The "freeze" was also reiterated by the Clinton administration but was watered down when the provision for "natural growth" was added to it. The saga continued under George W. Bush and lest we forget, it was George Mitchell who was dispatched to the region in 2001 to discuss "settlement freeze" and evacuation recommendations by the Sharm el-Sheikh Fact-Finding Committee (Mitchell Committee) which has called for the cessation of all settlement activity as a key element in constructing a viable diplomatic process.

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