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By Yarden Frankl
 NEVE DANIEL, Israel, Sept. 8 —In the next few days we should hear an announcement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of some sort of settlement freeze. This is actually good news in the opinion of this one settler. That’s because this announcement will not freeze construction — it will unfreeze it.
For the past few years, there has been very little construction in Jewish towns in the territory that is in dispute. On the other hand, there has been a great deal of Palestinian construction. While Jewish towns stagnate, Arab towns are growing like crazy. The situation is fundamental discrimination. If we both have claims to the area, why should the Jews be denied the right to build?
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The Israeli government has not issued permits to build because of a fear of upsetting the U.S Administration. Despite all this talk of a right-wing, hardline Israeli government, there
has been no new building projects approved. In fact, the freeze that everyone has been demanding of Israel started a long time ago. The problem is, Israel gets no credit for it because we have not publicly admitted to freezing settlement construction.
That is why I have no objections to the forthcoming announcement. The ball will now be in the Arab’s court. If they want to make peace, they have a lot of work to do. If they do not (which sadly, I believe to be the case), then it will be clear and Israel can finally start building again.
So we will get another six months of the semi-freeze we have been in for years and finally there will be a light at the end of the tunnel.
We have lived in this land for thousands of years, we can get by six more months.
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