Left I on the News

The Israelis have forgotten it already:

Israel said on Tuesday it has invited bids to build more than 300 new housing units in annexed east Jerusalem, the first settlement expansion since the revival of peace talks with the Palestinians.

But, but...

At the Annapolis conference last week, Israel and the Palestinians pledged to implement the 2003 roadmap plan, the first phase of which calls on Israel to freeze all settlement activity and for Palestinians to improve security.

Ah, but you forgot Catch-22:

Israel does not consider construction in east Jerusalem -- which it captured in the 1967 Six-Day war -- as settlement growth because it annexed the Arab part of the Holy City shortly after the conflict.

Not that that "annexation" is recognized by anyone (not even, I don't believe, the United States, at least not officially). And not that, if that Catch-22 doesn't come into play, Israel doesn't have another Catch-22 up its sleeve - the "natural growth" which is occurring in, according to Peace Now, 88 different settlements in the West Bank.

This latest announcement, by the way, came just one day after Israel finally released those 429 prisoners.