Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged Tuesday to build 3,500 new settler homes in a super-sensitive area of the occupied West Bank, just a week before a tight general election. "I gave immediate instructions for a permit to deposit (plans) for the construction of 3,500 units in E1," Netanyahu said. The international community has warned repeatedly that Jewish settlement construction in the E1 corridor would cut the West Bank in two and compromise the contiguity of a future Palestinian state. jjm/bs/kir