WASHINGTON, Nov 14: Given the reality of Palestinian demographics, Israeli settlements imperil the future of Israel as a Jewish state and must end immediately, the top US diplomat for the Middle East said in remarks released on Thursday.

In addition, Israel’s construction of a controversial security barrier in the West Bank will likely undermine any hope of reaching a permanent peace settlement with the Palestinians and achieving a two-state resolution to the long-running conflict, the diplomat said.

While stressing the absolute necessity for Palestinians to end anti-Israeli violence as a first step in restarting the languishing peace process, William Burns, assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, said Israel must accept the reality of the situation on the ground and do its part, as well.

“The demographic picture is very stark,” he said in an address to the George Marshall Foundation on Wednesday, a transcript of which was released by the State Department on Thursday.

“Within the next decade or so, Jews will be a minority in the area encompassing Israel, the West Bank and Gaza,” Mr Burns said. “As Israeli settlements expand and their populations increase, it becomes increasingly difficult to see how the two peoples will be separated into two states.

“The fact is that settlements continue to grow today, encouraged by specific government policies — and at enormous expense to Israel’s economy,” he said.

“And this persists even as it becomes clear that the logic of settlements and the reality of demographics could threaten the future of Israel as a

Jewish democracy,” Mr Burns said.

“For friends of Israel, the conclusion is hard to escape,” he said. “Settlement activity must stop, because it ultimately undermines Israeli as well as Palestinian interests.”

William Burns also called the barrier — for which Washington has already said it will penalize Israel by deducting loan guarantees — a “significant problem” that “prejudices negotiations and, like settlement activity, takes us further from the two-state goal”.

Under the internationally drafted Middle East peace plan known as the roadmap, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s government is required to freeze settlement activity and dismantle around 60 West Bank outposts set up since he came to power in March 2001.

Since the roadmap was launched in June, the number of outposts has remained largely unchanged — some were dismantled with great fanfare, but a similar number have been set up by radical settlers — while the peace plan has floundered amid a new cycle of violence.—AFP