THE MIDDLE EAST

By Dean Fischer

Edward Abington, the able American consul general in Jerusalem, has the most delicate job in Middle East diplomacy: dealing with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. His job is made even more difficult by the U.S.'s apparent fear of offending Israel. The latest evidence: TIME has learned that Abington was rebuked by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright for his statement, quoted in the New York Times May 21, that Israel's settlement expansion in the occupied territories is "ideologically driven" rather than based on natural growth and a demand for housing.

Abington's statement reflects more than an educated hunch; it is the result of a semiannual CIA survey of settlement occupancy in the West Bank and Gaza. The agency's latest findings reveal a vacancy rate of 25% in the West Bank and twice that in the Gaza Strip. Those conclusions reflect a familiar reality; for years the Israelis have been engaged in settlement building in the occupied territories not because they need new housing but because they want to hold onto the land. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced the survey as "false by an order of magnitude, to put it mildly." Everyone in the Clinton Administration, including Albright, knows that Netanyahu's settlement policy is a fundamental reason for the breakdown of peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. Abington's sin was to say publicly what they all confirm privately.

--By Dean Fischer