Settlement construction forges ahead despite criticism from President Bush

? Bulldozers cleared rubble and cranes hoisted equipment Tuesday in the largest West Bank settlement a day after criticism from President Bush that clouded a Texas summit with Israel’s prime minister. Israel says the work is taking place within existing boundaries and does not constitute expansion.

But Israel’s distinction is lost on the Palestinians and possibly the Americans, too. The Bush administration has insisted that Israel stick to a Mideast peace plan that bans all settlement construction.

Israel recently confirmed plans to build an additional 3,650 houses between the settlement, Maaleh Adumim, and Jerusalem, five miles to the west — effectively cutting off the Arab section of the city from the rest of the West Bank. Palestinians say this would make it impossible for them to create a state in the West Bank and Gaza with east Jerusalem as its capital.

On Tuesday, finishing touches were being put on apartment buildings at the edge of Maaleh Adumim, home to 30,000 Israelis in the barren Judean desert.

Large cranes carried equipment on and off the buildings, bulldozers removed rubble, workers in yellow hard hats put down cement bricks, and the sound of banging hammers echoed in the air.

Work on some of the buildings began more than a year ago. The construction is not connected to the plan to expand the settlement to complete a Jewish ring around Jerusalem.