War Turns the Tide For Israeli Settlers

But Shaul Goldstein, a settler leader who is identified with the movement's pragmatic wing, said he expects Olmert to resurrect the West Bank withdrawal plan as soon as he determines that prospects are slim for successful peace talks with the Palestinians or Syria.

In the meantime, he said, the movement will consider whether to form a new party to influence the withdrawal plan or to fight it by other means. The hard-line wing, embodied by Eitam, has proposed more-radical options that appear to have little chance of winning public support.

During a memorial service this month for a soldier killed in Lebanon, Eitam, a former general who commanded a brigade in Gaza, told the gathering that "we will have to expel a large majority of the Arabs of Judea and Samaria," using Israeli terminology for the West Bank.

"We are still very divided," said Goldstein, who is chairman of the Gush Etzion settlement bloc. "The whole right-wing movement in Israel is frustrated, even though many in the left wing can now see that our warnings about withdrawing from Gaza were not simply propaganda."

A state commission last year identified more than 100 unauthorized outposts in the West Bank and Gaza before its evacuation. Unlike larger Jewish settlements in the territories -- all of which are deemed illegal under international law -- the outposts were built without the explicit approval of the Israeli government.

Outposts are usually no more than a few shipping containers and trailers that often expand the boundaries of established settlements to neighboring hilltops. Many of them, including Amona, are built on private Palestinian land.

Sharon promised the Bush administration that he would raze about two dozen outposts erected since he took office in March 2001, although none has been dismantled to date. Less than a month after taking over from Sharon, Olmert ordered Israeli soldiers and border police to remove nine trailers from this outpost. Pro-settlement demonstrators pelted the soldiers with rocks, sand and paint; scores of people were injured. The rest of Amona was left standing.

Last week, Defense Minister Amir Peretz ordered the military to raze 47 illegal buildings in some West Bank outposts, which Peace Now says contain thousands of illegal structures. The order, which has yet to be carried out, also called for the demolition of 39 buildings that Israel says the Palestinians constructed illegally.

At the same time, Olmert has this month alone advertised for bids to build 854 new housing units in West Bank settlements, most of them in the large blocs he intends to keep. The construction runs counter to the U.S.-backed peace blueprint known as the "road map," which Olmert says he supports as the best way to reach an agreement with the Palestinians.

In addition to the new housing, a large Israeli police headquarters has been nearly completed on a parcel of land east of Jerusalem where the Bush administration has long opposed any Israeli construction. Senior U.S. officials have warned that building in the so-called E-1 area would cut off the southern West Bank from economic centers in the north and further complicate the creation of a coherent Palestinian state.

"No settlement will be dismantled until we get legitimacy for the settlement blocs," said Otniel Schneller, a Kadima lawmaker and settler involved in planning the West Bank withdrawal. "The Americans' lack of flexibility is now causing this stalemate. If they would say yes to the settlement blocs, then there would be areas that we could develop and other areas we could not. If the U.S. does not understand this, the government will be in a stalemate."

Stewart Tuttle, spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, said the United States does not have "a separate policy for this or that settlement, or this or that area. Our policy is the same across the board. Israel, like the Palestinians, has obligations under the road map. Israel's is to cease settlement activity and dismantle illegal outposts."

In Amona, the structure that was to have been the outpost's first concrete house sits unfinished, the work frozen. The road remains unpaved, and the 35 families here remain uncertain whether to develop their hilltop or prepare to abandon it.

In front of a trailer, the wood frame for a swing set is taking shape alongside a barbecue and a baby carriage. Moti and Yael, a husband and wife who declined to give their last name, said the new playground for their three children was a step toward moving ahead with a life that has been in a kind of limbo for months.

Yael, who teaches high school English in the adjacent settlement of Ofra, predicted that the West Bank withdrawal would resurface soon. She said a "left-wing" friend from Haifa, the coastal city pounded by Hezbollah rockets during the war, already wants Olmert to dust off his plan.

"This settlement has a feel of being stuck," said Yael, 33. "But things change quickly here. Soon the country will forget the war."