atrocities to increase in the coming months because the enemy knows its greatest defeat lies in the expression of free people in freely

atrocities to increase in the coming months because the enemy knows its greatest defeat lies in the expression of free people in freely enacted laws and at the ballot box.”The ratification of the constitution at the referendum, and the subsequent elections, remain a key plank of the US-British exit strategy from Iraq and a rejection will mean the political process will have to start again from scratch.The Sunnis – who object to the federal structure inherent in the draft, claiming it will leave the Shias and the Kurds in control of the oil-producing areas – have begun a voter-registration drive. President George Bush had welcomed the draft constitution and said the referendum was a chance for the country to ” set the foundation for a permanent Iraqi government”. He said that the document “contains far-reaching protections for fundamental human freedoms including religion, assembly, conscience and expression”.But Mr Bush added: “We can expect … The text states that Iraq is “part of the Islamic world and its Arab people are part of the Arab nation”. I do not believe in this division between Shia and Sunni and Muslims and Christians and Arabs and Kurds.”I find this is a true recipe for chaos and perhaps a catastrophe in Iraq and around it.”Mr Moussa, a former Egyptian foreign minister, said there was also concern in the Arab world that the draft text denied Iraq’s “Arab identity”.

And, in what was seen as another blow to the United States and Britain, the secretary general of the Arab League warned that adopting the constitution in its current form will be a ” true recipe for chaos” with reverberations around the region.

The draft document, approved by the Shia and Kurdish factions but rejected by Sunni Arabs, was finally delivered to the National Assembly at the weekend.But Amr Moussa, the Arab League secretary general, said yesterday: “I share the concerns of many Iraqis about the lack of consensus on the constitution. In the longer term they want, like so many other settlers, to move with their closest friends from Neve Dekalim. They have no desire to move to the West Bank settlements, because as Mrs Slater puts it: “I don’t like the mountains. I want somewhere green.” Their dream is establish a community of Neve Dekalim families in Galilee But either way “God gives us strength We are looking forward not back We are crying but we are looking forward.”. Thousands of Sunnis demonstrated in Iraq against the new constitution as the campaign for its rejection in a coming referendum swung into action. “You can’t fight for your house and pursue finding another house,” says Mrs Slater “I couldn’t do it. I don’t regret it.” One possibility is that they will get a caravan close to the “tent city” near Netivot, housing the recalcitrant settlers from Atzmona, where Mrs Slater taught at the kindergarten and where the children are missing her.

Even if he hadn’t been, he says, it wouldn’t have made any difference to their decision not to pack up before the Army came: ” We’ll take the money, but it’s really not that important.” But wouldn’t it have been better, if only for the children, to have planned for the future by negotiating with the government rather than face, as they now do, uncertainty about where they can live? At the very least they could, like many other settlers, already be living in caravans within sight of where their new houses will be built. Mr Slater always told his wife and children that this was a ruse to pressure them to leave voluntarily; now he seems to have been proved right. And meanwhile, Ariel Sharon has indicated he wants to see settlers like Mr Slater paid full compensation – a package worth $450,000 (£250,000) on average – along with those who left before the deadline. Last weekend, 10 days after their forced eviction and rather fewer before the Army bulldozers move into destroy it, Mr Slater went back to the house and supervised the soldiers who were packing their property into two shipping containers for temporary removal to the Army base at Kastina, north of Ashkelon. Families like the Slaters who stayed illegally in their Gush Katif settlements beyond the midnight deadline for voluntary departure on 16 August, were warned they would forfeit their chance to pack up their worldly goods and would lose up a third of their compensation.