Palestinians say that building in E1 would jeopardise the contiguity of a Palestinian state.

BBC: Palestinian protest on land assigned for E1 settlement

What he saw was in close conformity with the blueprint: little territorial contiguity and no Palestinian toehold in Jerusalem.

ECONOMIST: Palestinians and Israel

Clearly it will be a blotchy business, with settlements and roads invading as they are intended to do any sense of Palestinian sovereign contiguity.

ECONOMIST: Israel and the Palestinians

Thus, the Israeli withdrawal will establish Palestinian Authority territorial contiguity in the West Bank by geographically connecting all Palestinian-controlled areas in the West Bank.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Center for Security Policy | Ehud Olmert��s ��Convergence�� Plan for the West Bank and U.S. Middle East Policy | Page: 3

But the map showed the usual archipelago of islets in the north and south of the West Bank, with no territorial contiguity between them, and none of them anywhere near Jerusalem.

ECONOMIST: Palestinians and Israel

The expressed purpose of these racist policies has been to prevent territorial contiguity between Syrian, Iraqi and Turkish Kurds and to "Arabize" Syrian Kurdistan where most of Syria's oil deposits are located.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: The Syrian spring

The tighter the link, mainly in terms of roads and the contiguity and acquisition of Jewish houses in ancient Hebron, the harder it will be, in the event of a two-state settlement, to remove a Jewish presence.

ECONOMIST: What would happen to Hebron under a two-state solution?

If this is truly Mr Barak's final offer, it would leave a Palestinian state made up of two Gaza-like cantons north and south of Jerusalem, but with no territorial contiguity between them and no access to the border with Jordan.

ECONOMIST: Palestinians and Israel