Israel fears Obama heading for imposed Mideast settlement

U.S. President Barack Obama's demands during his meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last Tuesday point to an intention to impose a permanent settlement on Israel and the Palestinians in less than two years, political sources in Jerusalem say.

Israeli officials view the demands that Obama made at the White House as the tip of the iceberg under which lies a dramatic change in U.S. policy toward Israel.

Of 10 demands posed by Obama, four deal with Jerusalem: opening a Palestinian commercial interests office in East Jerusalem, an end to the razing of structures in Palestinian neighborhoods in the capital, stopping construction in Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, and not building the neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo.

But another key demand - to discuss the dispute's core issues during the indirect talks that are planned - is perceived in Jerusalem as problematic because it implies that direct negotiations would be bypassed. This would set up a framework through which the Americans would be able to impose a final settlement.

It is not just Obama's demands that are perceived as problematic, but also the new modus operandi of American diplomacy. The fact that the White House and State Department have been in contact with Israel's European allies, first and foremost Germany, is seen as part of an effort to isolate Israel and put enormous political pressure on it.

Israeli officials say that the Obama administration's new policy contradicts commitments made by previous administrations, as well as a letter from George W. Bush in 2004 to the prime minister at the time, Ariel Sharon. According to this view, the new policy is also incongruous with the framework posed by Bill Clinton in 2000.

Senior Israeli sources say that as a result of the U.S. administration's policies, the Palestinians will toughen their stance and seriously undermine the peace process' chances of success.

Moreover, sources in Jerusalem say that the new American positions undermine the principle of credibility that has guided U.S. foreign policy since the end of World War II. Ignoring specific promises made to its Israeli ally would make other American allies lose trust in its commitments to them.

Israeli officials warn that if the United States shirks its past commitments, the willingness of the Israeli public to put its trust in future American guarantees will be undermined - as will the superpower's regional and international standing.

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U.S. will 'consider abstaining' if UN votes on East Jerusalem

The United States would "seriously consider abstaining" should the United Nations Security Council pass a resolution condemning Israel's housing construction in East Jerusalem, the BBC reported on Sunday.

That message was passed during a meeting between a senior U.S. official and Qatari Foreign Minister Hamad Bin Jasim Al Thani, a diplomatic source told the BBC.

Sheikh Hamad reportedly asked a senior official from the Obama administration whether the U.S. would promise not to veto a Security Council resolution condemning Israel's settlement activity in East Jerusalem.

The U.S. official reportedly told Hamad in response that the current U.S. position was that it would "seriously consider abstention", according to the BBC.

The White House has not yet responded to Haaretz's request for clarification.

Tensions between Israel and the U.S. flared earlier this month when Jerusalem announced its approval of 1,600 new housing units in East Jerusalem, during U.S. Vice President Joe Biden's visit to the region.

The U.S. termed the timing of the announcement an "insult," and both sides have declared that the incident would not harm the close relations.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last year declared a temporary 10-month settlement halt in the West Bank, but would not include East Jerusalem in that freeze. Netanyahu and members of his coalition have repeatedly declared that construction in Jerusalem would continue.

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Netanyahu and Obama are at point of no return

The strife between Israel and the United States concerns something far bigger than the proximity talks with the Palestinians. As far as President Barack Obama and his senior advisers are concerned, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to blame for nothing less than damaging the standing of the U.S.in the Middle East and the Muslim world.

Just as Netanyahu received his standing ovation at the AIPAC conference, Obama and his advisers were ruminating over an altogether different convention - the Arab League begins a meeting Tripoli on Saturday. For the Americans, Netanyahu's Likudnik speech and the Shpeherd Hotel project matched in embarrassment the scandalous announcement of construction in East Jerusalem during Vice President Joe Biden's visit here.

This year's Arab League summit will be the scene of struggle between the allies of Iran and the allies of American, and the violation of the status quo in Al Quds - Jerusalem - has direct implications for the balance of power between the sides. Over the last few weeks, Americans have been giving life support to the Arab Peace Initiative, born at the League's summit in Beirut 2002 and set to be on the agenda this week.

The absence of Egyptian President Mubarak, who is recovering from an operation in Berlin, doesn't make it any easier for the U.S. to resist the efforts of Syria and Libya to suspend or possibly even terminate the peace initiative. The al-Mabhouh assassination, insulting as it was to the rulers of the Gulf, doesn't do much for the other proponents of the initiative, King Abdullah of Saudia and King Abdullah II of Jordan. The Saudi king had asked the Quartet for clarifications about Israel's latest moves in Jerusalem and specifically about Netanyahu's statement of intent for the Arab part of the city.

The messages coming to the White House from Riyadh and Amman, then, were starkly clear: If you don't rein in your Israeli friends, Tehran won't be the only Middle East capital where American flags will burn.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has decisively supported General David Petraeus, the first American military man in years to describe Israel as a strategic burden on the U.S. Gates said America's rivals in the Middle East are abusing the standstill of the political process between Israel and the Arabs. He stressed that he had no doubt a lack of peace in the region was influencing American interests there.

Netanyahu had been hoping to buy time until November's Congressional elections, which coincide with the deadline he set for the settlement freeze. But with America's strategic interest on the line, Bibi's favorite political game (playing the Jewish community and Congress against the White House and the State Department) isn't working anymore. Obama decided his moderate Middle East coalition is more important than Netanyahu's extremist one. This is a point of no return.

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Obama demands Netanyahu’s peace answers by Saturday

The US, according to officials, wants these commitments by Saturday so it can take them to the Arab League meeting in Libya and receive that organization's backing for starting proximity talks.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will convene his senior ministers on Friday to discuss the demands made by US President Barack Obama and his overall trip to Washington – a trip that, because of negative atmospherics and amid a paucity of hard information, has been widely characterized as among the most difficult in recent memory.

Officials in the Prime Minister’s Office continued to throw a blackout on the Netanyahu-Obama meeting, as well as give only very sketchy information about the commitments that the US is demanding of Israel as a precursor to starting the proximity talks with the Palestinians. The US, according to officials, wants these commitments by Saturday so it can take them to the Arab League meeting in Libya and receive that organization's backing for starting proximity talks.

According to a Palestinian Authority official in Ramallah, the US administration on Thursday informed the PA that the Netanyahu meetings in Washington did not produce any agreement on the issue of construction in east Jerusalem.

The official said that PA President Mahmoud Abbas met in Amman with David Hale, US deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs, who briefed him on the outcome of Netanyahu’s talks with Obama.

“The American envoy said that the two sides failed to reach agreement on settlement construction in Jerusalem,” the PA official said.

Hale also told Abbas that the US administration would continue its discussions with the Israeli government in the next few days and weeks, in an attempt to solve the crisis that has erupted between the Obama administration and the Netanyahu government.

Prior to leaving Washington late on Wednesday night, Netanyahu tried to put a positive spin on the meetings, saying that the two sides had made progress in finding a “middle path” between the “traditional policy of all Israeli governments [regarding building in east Jerusalem], and our will to also find a way to renew the peace process.”

US officials indicated on Thursday that Israel had bridged some of the gaps between the two countries during their marathon consultations, even though no final resolution was presented after Obama’s and Netanyahu’s staffs toiled late into the night on Wednesday for a second straight day.

“I think we’re making progress on important issues,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters on Thursday afternoon, but he declined to go into specifics.

US sources indicated that there seemed to be a good deal of movement on the contents of planned indirect negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians.

Nevertheless, the administration’s treatment of Netanyahu during his meeting with Obama created the impression of a deep crisis in relations. As Jackson Diehl wrote in The Washington Post, the White House’s refusal to allow non-official photographers record the Obama-Netanyahu meeting, and the fact that no statement was issued afterward, led to the impression that “Netanyahu is being treated as if he were an unsavory Third World dictator, needed for strategic reasons but conspicuously held at arms length.”

According to various Israeli sources, the Obama administration is asking for Israel to commit to some type of limitation on building in east Jerusalem; to show a willingness to deal with the so-called core issues of borders, refugee and Jerusalem already in the indirect talks; and to agree to a number of confidence building measures, including the release of hundreds of Fatah prisoners.

There were also reports, not confirmed, that the administration had asked for a commitment to extend the moratorium on housing starts in the West Bank settlements beyond the 10-months originally declared.

One source in the Prime Minister’s Office said the goal of the dialogue with the US was to find a way to start the proximity talks and “put these problems behind us.”

The key problem with the US has to do with Jerusalem, with the administration making it clear in recent days that it did not accept Netanyahu’s declaration at the AIPAC conference on Monday evening that Jerusalem was not a settlement, but rather Israel’s capital, and that building would continue there.

“On the issue of Jerusalem,” one source in Netanyahu’s office said, “the truth is that this is a city of 750,000 people, and every couple of days there is going to be some kind of building, or zoning, or buying or planning and actual building. The whole idea that every time this happens dialogue will stop is a recipe for no peace process.”

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, one of the members of Netanyahu’s “septet” inner cabinet, told Channel 2 on Thursday that while Israel was not looking for a fight with the US, it would not give up on its “basic right” to build in Jerusalem. This sentiment was repeated by Netanyahu a number of times during his visit to Washington.

Lieberman, according to some reports, called the prime minister during his Washington talks to urge him not to bow to US pressure and not to sign off on any new commitments.

Regarding confidence building measures to the Palestinians, Netanyahu, according to senior officials, did not commit himself to a prisoner release, and said he would bring the matter to the security establishment in Israel to determine whether this was something they would recommend or not.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who accompanied Netanyahu on the trip, told the Americans – who reportedly had asked for an Israeli commitment to extend the housing start moratorium – that he was “disappointed” by the reaction to the original moratorium decision. He said he thought this would garner more positive reactions from around the world, as well as bring the Palestinians to the negotiating table. Instead, he said, the move made the Palestinians believe that if they held out, they could get even more.

Netanyahu, during his talks in the White House, asked the Obama administration why it was not placing the same kind of pressure on the Palestinians as it was placing on Israel, and asked where the “reciprocity” was. Netanyahu, according to senior officials, said that while the US held him responsible for the timing of the announcement to build 1,600 units in Ramat Shlomo, rather than holding Interior Minister Eli Yishai responsible, Abbas was not held responsible when it came to the PA – which recently presided over the naming of a square in Ramallah for the terrorist responsible for the Coastal Road massacre.

Meanwhile, the PA’s chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said that Israel was “damaging its credibility as a serious peace partner” by refusing to stop construction in east Jerusalem and West Bank settlements.

In response to the latest decision to approve the construction of 20 housing units at the site of Shepherd’s Hotel in Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, Erekat said: “There is a growing sense of frustration among the international community with the measures and decisions taken by Israel.”

Erekat said that if Israel were serious about achieving peace with the Palestinians, it would stop building “illegal settlements,” as requested by the road map for peace in the Middle East and the Quartet.

“Why is Israel continuing to do what it’s doing at a time when everyone is urging it to do what is needed to achieve peace?” he asked.

The PA official said that the decision to build the new homes in Sheikh Jarrah was in the context of Israel’s policy to “end Palestinian presence in Occupied East Jerusalem” and destroy any hope of reaching agreement over the issue of the city.

Erekat said that the PA wanted to give the proposed proximity talks a chance to succeed, “because our obvious goal is to end Israeli occupation and [achieve] the establishment of a viable and independent Palestinian state within the pre-June 4, 1967, borders.”

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Netanyahu leaves U.S. disgraced, isolated and weaker

Obama made clear to his guest that the letter Netanyahu had sent was insufficient and returned it for further corrections. Instead of a reception as a guest of honor, Netanyahu was treated as a problem child, an army private ordered to do laps around the base for slipping up at roll call.

Details emerging from Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Washington remain incomplete, but the conclusion may nonetheless be drawn that the prime minister erred in choosing to fly to the United States this week. The visit - touted as a fence-mending effort, a bid to strengthen the tenuous ties between Netanyahu and U.S. President Barack Obama - only highlighted the deep rift between the American and Israeli administrations.

The prime minister leaves America disgraced, isolated, and altogether weaker than when he came.

Instead of setting the diplomatic agenda, Netanyahu surrendered control over it. Instead of leaving the Palestinian issue aside and focusing on Iran, as he would like, Netanyahu now finds himself fighting for the legitimacy of Israeli control over East Jerusalem.

The most sensitive and insoluble core issues - those which when raised a decade ago led to the dissolution of the peace process and explosion of the second intifada - are now being served as a mere appetizer.

At the start of his visit, Netanyahu was tempted to bask in the warm welcome he received at the AIPAC conference, at which he gave his emotional address on Jerusalem.

Taking a page from Menachem Begin, he spoke not on behalf of the State of Israel, but in the name of the Jewish people itself and its millennia of history.

His speech was not radical rightist rhetoric. Reading between the lines, one could spot a certain willingness to relinquish West Bank settlements as long as Israel maintains a security buffer in the Jordan Valley.

But at the White House, the prime minister's speech to thousands of pro-Israel activists and hundreds of cheering congressmen looked like an obvious attempt to raise political capital against the American president.

Knowing Netanyahu would be reenergized by his speech at the lobby, Obama and his staff set him a honey trap. Over the weekend they sought to quell the row that flared up during U.S. Vice President Joe Biden's trip here two weeks ago, and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described Netanyahu's response to the ultimatums Washington presented to him as "useful."

Special envoy George Mitchell made a televised visit to the prime minister's bureau Sunday to invite Netanyahu to the White House. Washington, it seemed, was trying to make nice.

Far from it. Just when Netanyahu thought he had resolved the crisis by apologizing to Biden, Clinton called him up for a dressing down.

This time as well, Netanyahu almost believed the crisis had passed, that he had survived by offering partial, noncommittal answers to the Americans' questions. Shortly before meeting with Obama, Netanyahu even warned the Palestinians that should they continue to demand a freeze on construction, he would postpone peace talks by a year.

His arrogant tone underscored the fact that Netanyahu believed that on the strength of his AIPAC speech, he could call the next few steps of the diplomatic dance.

But then calamity struck. At their White House meeting, Obama made clear to his guest that the letter Netanyahu had sent was insufficient and returned it for further corrections. Instead of a reception as a guest of honor, Netanyahu was treated as a problem child, an army private ordered to do laps around the base for slipping up at roll call.

The revolution in the Americans' behavior is clear to all. On Sunday morning Obama was still anxiously looking ahead to the House of Representatives vote on health care - the last thing he wanted was a last-minute disagreement with congressmen over ties with Israel.

The moment the bill was passed, however, a victorious Obama was free to deal with his unruly guest.

The Americans made every effort to downplay the visit. As during his last visit in November, Netanyahu was invited to the White House at a late hour, without media coverage or a press conference. If that were not enough, the White House spokesman challenged Netanyahu's observation at AIPAC that "Jerusalem is not a settlement."

The Americans didn't even wait for him to leave Washington to make their disagreement known. It was not the behavior Washington shows an ally, but the kind it shows an annoyance.

The approval of construction at the Shepherd Hotel in Sheikh Jarrah, announced before his meeting with Obama, again caught Netanyahu unawares. Apparently the special panel appointed after the Ramat Shlomo debacle to prevent such surprises failed its first test.

Netanyahu is having his most difficult week since returning to office, beginning with the unfortunate decision to relocate the planned emergency room at Ashkelon's Barzilai Medical Center and lasting through his humiliating jaunt through Washington.

Returning to Israel today, Netanyahu will need to work hard to rehabilitate his image, knowing full well that Obama will not relent, but instead demand that he stop zigzagging and decide, once and for all, whether he stands with America or with the settlers.

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Differences remain between Israel and US - White House

Differences remain between Israel and the US, following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Washington, the White House has said.

President Obama urged the Israeli PM to take steps to build confidence in the peace process, during "honest" talks on Tuesday, spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

Mr Gibbs added that the US was seeking "clarification" of the latest plans to build homes in occupied East Jerusalem.

Mr Netanyahu's trip came amid the worst crisis in US-Israeli ties for decades.

The Israeli leader delayed his departure from Washington on Wednesday to meet the US Middle East peace envoy, George Mitchell, at his hotel.

Mr Mitchell returned to the US on Tuesday following a meeting in the West Bank with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

The White House was reportedly seeking to persuade Mr Netanyahu to commit to several trust-building measures to revive hopes for indirect "proximity talks" between Israel and the Palestinians.

The Palestinians pulled out of moves towards talks, just after they had been announced two weeks ago, when Israel unveiled plans to build 1,600 homes in the East Jerusalem settlement of Ramat Shlomo.

The project was approved during a visit by US Vice-President Joe Biden - a move which Washington branded an insult.

Then, minutes before Mr Netanyahu's fence-mending visit to the White House on Tuesday, it emerged the Jerusalem municipal government had approved another development.

Twenty apartments are to be built for Jewish settlers on the site of an old hotel in the predominantly Arab neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah.

Mr Gibbs told reporters on Wednesday there were areas of agreement and disagreement between the sides, following the two meetings in Washington, one of which was unscheduled.

He described the three-and-a-half hours of talks as an "honest and straightforward discussion that continues".

"The president has asked the prime minister for certain things to build confidence up to proximity talks that we think can make progress," Mr Gibbs said.

He reiterated the US position that there was an "unbreakable bond" between the US and the Israeli people.

The Israelis said there had been a "good atmosphere" during Tuesday's talks.

But the BBC's Kim Ghattas in Washington notes Mr Netanyahu did not get the reception usually reserved for America's allies.

There was no press conference, no lavish welcome, and the White House did not even release a picture of the meeting.

It all signals that the US is playing tough, making clear it is upset with the Israeli government, says our correspondent.

"I think it comes as a great shock to you and me, but not everything the president does is for the cameras and for the press," Mr Gibbs told reporters.

The White House also demanded on Wednesday further "clarification" about the development in Sheikh Jarrah from Mr Netanyahu, who was said to have been caught off guard by the announcement the previous day.

Palestinians want East Jerusalem for their future capital, but Israel insists the city cannot be divided.

Nearly half a million Jews live in more than 100 settlements built since Israel's 1967 occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

They are considered illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this.

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Australia may expel Israeli diplomat over Dubai hit

"It appears Israeli officials have received indications in Canberra that Australia is preparing to expel a diplomat," the newspaper reported.

Australia is expected to follow the lead of Britain, which ejected an Israeli diplomat Tuesday over the alleged use of forged passports by suspected killers of a Hamas commander in Dubai, The Australian newspaper reported quoting Israeli government officials.

"It appears Israeli officials have received indications in Canberra that Australia is preparing to expel a diplomat," the newspaper reported.

Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was found dead in a Dubai hotel room in January in what police say was almost certainly a hit by Israel's Mossad spy agency.

The alleged assassins used forged passports from the U.K., France, Australia, Ireland and Germany.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband went before parliament Tuesday to announce that the five-week investigation by the Serious and Organized Crime Squad into the use of 12 forged British passports had concluded with the finger pointed squarely at Israel. There would be immediate and serious repercussions, he said.

The Foreign Secretary said that there was "compelling evidence" that Israeli spy agency Mossad had forged British passports for use in the killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai in January.

Although Israel initially thought Australia would unlikely follow the U.K.'s lead, that assessment changed distinctly Tuesday night, The Australian reported.

Meanwhile, the Daily Telegraph reported Wednesday that an Israeli government official said Britain's response was less harsh than some had feared.

"It could have been much worse," the official told the British newspaper. "I wouldn't call it a slap on the wrist, but it was more a symbolic reprimand than anything else."

Israel has also received assurances that the diplomat asked to leave could be replaced within six weeks, once the general election was over, the report added.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Israel "regretted" Britain's decision on Tuesday to expel an Israeli diplomat over the alleged use of forged British passports by suspected killers of a Hamas commander in Dubai.

"We attribute great importance to our relations with Britain," Lieberman said in a statement from Brussels, where he was meeting with senior European Union officials. "We hold a number of different and sensitive dialogues with them, and regret the British decision. We have never been given proof that Israel was involved in this affair."

Officials in Jerusalem expressed disappointment with Britain's public response to the matter, with some saying off the record that they saw it as a negative step in the war on terror.

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Netanyahu and Mitchell meeting after tense White House talks

Mitchell: We are continuing our efforts with good will; U.S. said testing Netanyahu's will for peace.

U.S. special envoy George Mitchell on Wednesday arrived at the Washington hotel where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is staying to continue talks to ease tensions between Israel and the United States.

"We are continuing with our talks and efforts with good will," said Mitchell, who was accompanied by advisers Dennis Ross and Daniel Shapiro.

U.S. President Barack Obama held a one-on-one meeting with Netanyahu at the White House on Tuesday as Israel sought to smooth over the diplomatic spat with Washington.

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Two meetings, but no agreement between Obama and Netanyahu

Israeli and American leaders could not even agree on a joint statement after their White House talks.

WASHINGTON - The meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Barack Obama at the White House on Tuesday did not resolve the differences of opinion on the future of the peace process with the Palestinians or Israeli construction in East Jerusalem. Netanyahu canceled a series of interviews and briefings with the American media, scheduled for Wednesday morning, in order to focus on the serious disagreements with the Obama administration.

Netanyahu arrived at the White House at 5:30 P.M. local time Tuesday, and held one on one talks with Obama for an hour and a half. The meeting ended in serious disagreement; after the talks - in an unprecedented move - Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and their advisers retired to a side room in the White House for consultations, while Obama left for his residential quarters. Some 90 minutes later, Netanyahu requested a second meeting with the president, who returned to the Oval Office for a further half-hour conversation with the prime minister.

Late night talks

But the second meeting between the two also ended in disagreement, and they could not even reach a consensus on a joint statement. Netanyahu and Ehud Barak then left the White House for the Israeli embassy in Washington, leaving the prime minister's aides, Yitzhak Molcho, Ron Dermer and Nir Chefetz, as well as Ambassador Michael Oren, to hold talks with Obama's people. Only at 2 A.M. did these consultations end, and Netanyahu and his entourage return to their hotel.

In the wake of such serious disagreements, and the need to continue the lower-level consultations Wednesday morning, Netanyahu cancelled his media appearances. Sources in Netanyahu's entourage said that the day had been devoted solely to talks with senior American officials, led by Molcho and Dermer. Netanyahu and Barak were to spend the day at the Israeli embassy.

"The objective is to reach understandings with the American administration before we take off for Israel," said a source in the Netanyahu camp. Nevertheless, it is unclear when Netanyahu will board a plane for home. Apparently this will happen Wednesday evening, Washington time, at the earliest.

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Obama hosts Netanyahu after week of bilateral tensions

President and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testing Netanyahu's will for peace, U.S. source says.

U.S. President Barack Obama held a one-on-one meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Tuesday as Israel sought to smooth over a diplomatic spat sparked by the announcement of Israeli construction in east Jerusalem.

Efforts to restore ties may have hit a roadblock, however, with the approval Tuesday of a further 20 east Jerusalem homes beyond the Green Line at the site of the former Shepherd Hotel.

In spite of attempts on both the Israeli and American sides to bring the crisis to an end, there is still lingering tension and lack of trust within the Obama administration toward Netanyahu.


An American source close to the administration said that Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have decided to "test" Netanyahu and see whether he will carry out his promised gestures of good will toward the Palestinians.

According to an Israeli source who has discussed the matter with senior U.S. officials, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the president are dissatisfied with a letter given to them by Netanyahu, in which he detailed steps he is willing to take to restore American confidence in his government.

The prime minister and his aides said that a meeting with Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden on Monday, which served as a preamble to the meeting with Obama, was conducted in excellent spirits.

Israel had angered Biden by announcing plans for 1,600 new Jewish homes in east Jerusalem during his visit to the country two weeks ago.

An Israeli source noted that both Biden and Clinton used strong language and made it clear to Netanyahu that he would need to make further concessions to American demands in their meeting if trust is to be restored.

The same source said that the Americans are convinced that the answers Netanyahu had given them are insufficient.

In a sign of White House concerns about lingering tensions, press coverage of the Oval Office talks was barred and no public statements were planned.

Before seeing Obama, Netanyahu told U.S. lawmakers he feared peace talks may be delayed for another year unless Palestinians drop their demand for a full freeze on Jewish building beyond the Green Line, including in east Jerusalem.

"We must not be trapped by an illogical and unreasonable demand," Netanyahu said during his meeting with House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other congressional leaders, according to his spokesman.

"It could put the peace negotiations on hold for another year," he said of the talks, suspended since December 2008.

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New East Jerusalem homes approved hours before Netanyahu-Obama meet

The Jerusalem municipality has given final approval to a group of settlers construct 20 apartments in a controversial hotel in East Jerusalem, Haaretz learned on Tuesday.

The announcement comes as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in Washington smoothing over ties with the United States over the latest settlement-related tensions, and hours before the premier was to meet with President Barack Obama in Washington.

The Shepherd Hotel in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood was purchased by American Jewish tycoon Irving Moskowitz in 1985 for $1 million.

Moskowitz, an influential supporter of Ateret Cohanim and heightened Israeli settlement in East Jerusalem, plans to tear down the hotel and build housing units for Jewish Israelis in its place.

The local planning council initially approved the plan in July, a move which angered Britain and the United States and prompted them to call on Israel to cancel the plans. The council issued its final approval for the project last Thursday, which now enables the settlers to begin their construction at once.

An existing structure in the area will be town down to make room for the housing units, while the historic Shepherd Hotel will remain intact. A three-story parking structure and an access road will also be constructed on site.

Netanyahu's visit to Washington this week was aimed at defusing the crisis that began when the report broke of plans to build 1,600 new units in Ramat Shlomo in East Jerusalem two weeks ago during the visit to Israel of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden.

While Netanyahu distanced himself from the decision made by the Interior Ministry, he repeated both before and during his trip that Israel reserves the right to build in East Jerusalem.

The prime minister who had hoped to rebuild lost trust in his relations with the president said that "relations between Israel and the U.S. should not be risked over divisions in the matter of Jerusalem.

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Targeted Citizen

Targeted Citizen - English from Adalah on Vimeo.

The film “Targeted Citizen” (15 minutes), produced by filmmaker Rachel Leah Jones for Adalah, surveys discrimination against the Palestinian citizens of Israel. With the participation of experts Dr. Yousef Jabareen of the Technion and Dr. Khaled Abu Asbeh of the Van Leer Institute, as well as Adalah attorneys Sawsan Zaher, Abeer Baker and Hassan Jabareen, inequality in land and housing, employment, education and civil and political rights are eloquently addressed. These interviews are reinforced by the contrasting informality of on-the-street conversations conducted by Palestinian comic duo Shammas-Nahas and punctuated by the hard-hitting rhymes of Palestinian rap trio DAM. The film's theme song “Targeted Citizen,” written and recorded by DAM especially for Adalah, tells it like it is without missing a beat.

Britain expels Israeli diplomat over Dubai passport row

The UK is to expel an Israeli diplomat over the use of 12 cloned British passports in the Dubai murder of a Hamas leader, the BBC has learned.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband will make a statement to Parliament later.

Israel has said there is no proof that its agents were behind the killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in a Dubai hotel room in January.

Diplomatic sources stressed the British government has stopped short of accusing Israel of the murder.

Strong message

However Mr Miliband had demanded that Israel co-operate fully with the investigation into how the passports were obtained.

The foreign secretary is to make the statement after Britain's Serious Organised Crime Agency found proof of the cloned passports.

BBC Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen said the expulsion would send a "very clear message" of British disapproval.

"It is a very big step for a government like the British to expel one of the diplomats belonging to one of its important allies," he said.

The diplomat to be expelled will not be Israel's ambassador to London, Ron Prosor.

Last month Mr Miliband described the use of fake UK passports as an "outrage" and vowed that the inquiry would "get to the bottom" of the affair.

Twelve fake British passports were used in the murder of Mr Mabhouh - the founder of Hamas's military wing - in his hotel room in Dubai on 19 January.

Dubai officials said they are "99% certain" that agents from Israeli secret service Mossad were behind the killing but Israel has said there is no proof.

Other members of the hit squad travelled on fake Irish, French and Australian travel documents, Dubai police said.

Following his death, Mr Mabhouh's family said medical teams that examined him determined he had died after receiving a massive electric shock to the head. They also found evidence that he had been strangled.

Blood samples sent to a French laboratory confirmed he was killed by electric shock, after which the body was sent to Syria, they said.

Thousands of people attended Mr Mabhouh's funeral at the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp, on the outskirts of Damascus in January.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said Mr Miliband would make a statement to the House of the Commons at 1530 GMT.

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Palestinians warn Israel after troops kill 4

NABLUS, West Bank (Reuters) – Four Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank were buried on Sunday following violence that has exacerbated growing tensions.

The Israeli army shot dead two 19-year-old men who it said had tried to stab a soldier on patrol near Nablus in the occupied West Bank. Two youths were also shot on Saturday.

Palestinian officials accused Israel of escalating tensions already running high over moves which Palestinians believe aim to deepen Israeli control over the territory.

Palestinian government spokesman Ghassan Khatib called for an independent investigation into the killing of cousins Mohammed Qawariq and Saleh Qawariq on Sunday, citing witness accounts they had been shot only after being arrested.

Mahmoud al-Aloul, a senior figure in the Fatah party led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said they had been killed in "cold blood": "Nobody can imagine that we can stand with our hands tied vis-a-vis what is happening," Aloul told around 1,500 mourners at their funeral in Awarta, south of Nablus.

One of the bodies was wrapped in a yellow Fatah flag and the other in the green flag of the rival Hamas Islamist movement.

Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rdainah said Israel had responded to international efforts to revive peace talks "with more escalation" that thwarted attempts to get negotiations going.

Tensions in the West Bank and East Jerusalem have risen in recent weeks, with Palestinians staging more protests over Israeli policies they believe aim to retain land where the Palestinians want to establish a state. The United States is trying to relaunch peace negotiations between the two sides.

Many of the protests have turned violent, with Palestinians throwing rocks at soldiers who fire rubber bullets and tear gas.

This though was the bloodiest 24 hours for Palestinians in the West Bank for more than a year. Two youths killed by Israeli forces on Saturday were also buried in the nearby village of Iraq Burin, just a few kilometers (miles) from Awarta.

MEDICS SAY LIVE AMMUNITION USED

Palestinian medics said Mohammed Kaddous, 16, and Osaid Kaddous, 17, were killed by gunfire during a confrontation on Saturday between Israeli forces and Palestinian youths.

Ahmad Hammad, a Nablus doctor, showed a Reuters journalist a photograph of what he said was a bullet entry wound in Mohammed Kaddous's chest and an exit wound in his back.

Hamid al-Masri, a doctor who treated Osaid Kaddous, presented an X-ray which he said showed a metal bullet lodged in his brain.

The Israeli army, which said it was responding to people throwing stones, denied using live rounds, only rubber bullets.

Locals said the youths, who were not closely related despite their similar names, had not been taking part in the protest.

Villagers in Iraq Burin have been staging protests over Israeli-imposed restrictions on access to farmland that lies near the Jewish settlement of Har Bracha. Jewish residents there say they are anxious to expand their land holdings rapidly.

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad strongly condemned "the Israeli military escalation" that had led to the four deaths, according to a statement issued by his office.

He warned that Israel was endangering the West Bank stability which his administration has sought to build.

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Be Careful of Haaretz Website

These last few days I have been receiving warning messages when bringing up Haaretz website. Below is a couple of snippets I took. If anyone can tell me exactly what is going on please feel free to respond. I am not sure what to make of it sense I have been going to Haaretz for years to read what they have to say. No problems until now.

(Click on Pictures to enlarge)

James Baker's advice for Obama on forging Middle East peace

"I would also stress that United States taxpayers are giving Israel roughly $3 billion each year, which amounts to something like $1,000 for every Israeli citizen, at a time when our own economy is in bad shape and a lot of Americans would appreciate that kind of helping hand from their own government. Given that fact, it is not unreasonable to ask the Israeli leadership to respect U.S. policy on settlements," said Baker.

Benjamin Netanyahu has been in this scenario before. The last time an American president reminded an Israeli prime minister who's in charge, 18 years ago, the ending was not bad at all: President George H.W. Bush and his secretary of state James Baker knocked out Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Shamir, and paved the way for Netanyahu, a former deputy foreign minister, to take over Likud. Four years later, Netanyahu evicted Shimon Peres from the Prime Minister's Office.

Now honorary chair of the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University in Houston, Texas, Baker is closely following the peace initiative he launched at the Madrid Conference in October 1991. In an interview published last month in the National Journal, Baker gave President Barack Obama a lesson in how to fight a settlement-loving Israeli government. He suggested the president go beyond making reprimands. (Tom Pickering, U.S. ambassador to Israel in the 1980s, once said to me, "The problem with you Israelis is that you don't understand nuances.")

Baker also mentioned the story of the guarantees, the first and last time the U.S. administration set a price for Israel's settlement policy: $10 billion in guarantees for funds to absorb Soviet immigrants, or construction in the settlements.

Baker told the interviewer that he doesn't regret the decision to use "the leverage of U.S. aid" to pressure Israel to freeze the settlements.

"I would also stress that United States taxpayers are giving Israel roughly $3 billion each year, which amounts to something like $1,000 for every Israeli citizen, at a time when our own economy is in bad shape and a lot of Americans would appreciate that kind of helping hand from their own government. Given that fact, it is not unreasonable to ask the Israeli leadership to respect U.S. policy on settlements," said Baker.

Back in the day, Washington was a more comfortable political arena for fights against a "hostile administration": There was a Republican president, versus a Democratic Congress and the Jewish community. Meanwhile, there was the Christian right, which finances quite a few conservative congressmen. Netanyahu and several of his friends at the embassy in Washington convinced Shamir that he could receive the guarantees while welcoming Baker to the region with new settlements.

"Israeli leaders told us they would just get the money from the U.S. Congress," recalled Baker. "Our reply was, 'We'll see you on Capitol Hill.' And we eventually won the vote on that bill."

The crisis with the U.S. paved Yitzhak Rabin's path to power, and from there to the Oslo Accords.

Baker is convinced today that without this, the Madrid Conference would not have taken place. "I don't fault President Obama for making settlements an issue, but I do fault him for caving in. You can't take a position that is consistent with U.S. policy going back many years, and the minute you get push-back you soften your position," he said. "When you are dealing with foreign leaders, they can smell that kind of weakness a thousand miles away."

High stakes

Edward Djerejian, the director of the Baker Institute, was Baker's assistant secretary for Near Eastern and South Asian affairs. Before that he was ambassador to Syria, and afterward, ambassador to Israel.

"When faced with a similar situation concerning Israeli settlement activity in 1991, President George H.W. Bush and secretary James A. Baker III stopped an additional $10 billion in housing loan guarantees to the Israeli government headed by Likud Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir. The stakes are equally high today," he told Haaretz by phone.

"If the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations are stalemated, the prospects for violence and instability in the region will be enhanced. The Obama administration should urge both the Israelis and the Palestinians to live up to their obligations in facilitating the onset of direct negotiations on the substantive issues. The sooner, the better.

"Our Baker Institute report shows that with strong United States leadership in an effective honest broker role, the parties can be brought together to narrow their differences on the territorial component of peace," he added.

"Obama cannot remove himself from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict because this issue affects the United States' core national security interests," continued Djerejian. "The Arab-Israeli conflict, and especially the Palestinian issue, remains one of the most contentious and sensitive issues in the entire Muslim world. Osama bin Laden exploits the plight of the Palestinians, as does [Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad ... This has a direct influence on the United States, which is expending its blood and treasure fighting insurgencies in overwhelmingly Muslim Iraq and Afghanistan.

"We would be naive to think that resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will eliminate the problems of terrorism and radicalization in the Islamic world, but it will go a long way toward draining the swamp of issues that extremists exploit for their own ends."

Djerejian said that Obama's decision to appoint George Mitchell as a special presidential envoy within his first few days in the White House proves that he has placed the peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians at the top of his agenda.

"Obama drew the lessons of engaging too late in a presidential term from the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations. Unfortunately, the discussions got mired in the secondary issue of an Israeli settlements freeze, and much political capital and time was expended on that issue rather than addressing the core issues of the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations," he noted.

In any event, Djerejian refuses to lose hope: A paper prepared by a task force he headed, which included former ministers and Israeli, Palestinian and American experts, proposes solutions for the territorial issue. The paper was sent a few weeks ago to special envoy Mitchell, to the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem and to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. It recommends that Obama choose among three options for an exchange of territory between the West Bank and Israel (based on a one-to-one ratio). The first option gives Israel 4 percent of the West Bank (251 square kilometers); the second, 3.4 percent (212 square kilometers); the third, 4.4 percent (274 square kilometers). Under the various proposals, there are currently between 100,000 and 200,000 settlers living on land that would be transferred to the Palestinians.

Djerejian said their position paper demonstrates that with the help of determined American leadership and mediation, the sides can bridge the gaps on the territorial issue. But he added that without active American involvement, direct negotiations will not solve the problem. The Netanyahu government is based on a narrow right-wing coalition, whereas the Palestinians are split between the PA government in the West Bank and the Hamas government in Gaza. Obama will have to invest a great deal of political capital in order for them to reject the internal pressures and to advance to an agreement, Djerejian stressed.

Baker also maintains a degree of optimism. "I've dealt with Bibi Netanyahu personally [Netanyahu was a senior member of the Israeli delegation at the Madrid Conference], and I think underneath it all he would like to be the prime minister who brings peace to his people. He's more pragmatic than a lot of people think. Remember, in the run-up to the Madrid Conference, I was dealing with a very hard-line Israeli leader in [former Prime Minister Yitzhak] Shamir, who used to say that Bibi was too soft," he said.

"I actually wouldn't be surprised to see Netanyahu negotiate a peace deal with Syria, though that will be easier to accomplish than a deal with the Palestinians ... The reason I mentioned a possible peace deal with Syria, however, is because the headquarters for Hamas is in Damascus, and Syria has great influence over the group.

"If you reach a peace deal between Israel and Syria, you will probably find a negotiating partner on the Palestinian issue. We confronted a similar situation in the 1980s and 1990s with the [Palestine Liberation Organization], which was considered a terrorist organization. To get around the problem, we found Palestinians in the occupied territories who were not PLO officials, and we used them as interlocutors. That cutout allowed us to have indirect discussions with the people calling the shots in the PLO."

Baker and Djerejian seemed to agree that, as in the case of the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt, the Madrid Conference, and the peace treaty between Israel and Jordan, the key to the two-state solution is a proper diplomatic initiative from Washington, but first and foremost strong political will in Jerusalem and Ramallah.

"Before the Madrid Conference," recalled Baker, "there was a point where our peacemaking efforts just collapsed. And I told both the Arabs and the Israelis at the time, 'When you get serious about peace, give us a call. Here is our number.' And guess what? They got the message. Both sides called, and after that they were more willing to compromise for peace."

Source:

Finally The Truth Has Been Spoken

Something to think about.

Folks, Please wake up.
Israel could not exist without money from the US (Money that we do not have!!)
We, US citizens, are supporting a nation who has oppressed conquered people, and driven the root cause of no peace in the Middle East...
The US no longer provides Grants (Another word for free money), but Loans (That have all payments wavered - to me this is till free money!!!)
Then we started Guaranteeing Israel loans, again with money that we do not have!!!
Many comments have included in them "Google it", well Google these facts....
Check these facts!

Question: Which country alone in the Middle East has nuclear weapons?
Answer: Israel.
Question: Which country in the Middle East refuses to sign the
nuclear non-proliferation treaty and bars international inspections? ?
Answer: Israel.
Question: Which country in the Middle East seized the sovereign
territory of other nations by military force and continues to occupy
it in defiance of United Nations Security Council resolutions?
Answer: Israel.
Question: Which country in the Middle East routinely violates
the international borders of another sovereign state with warplanes
and artillery and naval gunfire?
Answer: Israel.
Question: What American ally in the Middle East has for years
sent assassins into other countries to kill its political enemies (a
practice sometimes called exporting terrorism)?
Answer: Israel.
Question: In which country in the Middle East have high-ranking
military officers admitted publicly that unarmed prisoners of war were
executed?
Answer: Israel.
Question: What country in the Middle East refuses to prosecute
its soldiers who have acknowledged executing prisoners of war?
Answer: Israel.
Question: What country in the Middle East created 762,000
refugees and refuses to allow them to return to their homes, farms and
businesses?
Answer: Israel.
Question: What country in the Middle East refuses to pay
compensation to people whose land, bank accounts and businesses it
confiscated?
Answer: Israel.
Question: In what country in the Middle East was a high-ranking
United Nations diplomat assassinated?
Answer: Israel.
Question: In what country in the Middle East did the man who
ordered the assassination of a high-ranking U.N. diplomat become prime
minister?
Answer: Israel.
Question: What country in the Middle East blew up an American
diplomatic facility in Egypt and attacked a U.S. ship, the USS
Liberty, in international waters, killing 34 and wounding 171 American
sailors?
Answer: Israel.
Question: What country in the Middle East employed a spy,
Jonathan Pollard, to steal classified documents and then gave some of
them to the Soviet Union?
Answer: Israel.
Question: What country at first denied any official connection
to Pollard, then voted to make him a citizen and has continuously
demanded that the American president grant Pollard a full pardon?
Answer: Israel.
Question: What Middle East country allows American Jewish
murderers to flee to its country to escape punishment in the United
States and refuses to extradite them once in their custody?
Answer: Israel.
Question: What Middle East country preaches against hate yet
builds a shrine and a memorial for a murderer who killed 29
Palestinians while they prayed in their Mosque.?
Answer: Israel.
Question: What country on Planet Earth has the second most
powerful lobby in the United States, according to a recent Fortune
magazine survey of Washington insiders?
Answer: Israel.
Question: Which country in the Middle East deliberately
targeted a U.N. Refugee Camp in Qana, Lebanon and killed 103 innocent
men, women, and especially children?
Answer: Israel.
Question: Which country in the Middle East is in defiance of 69
United Nations Security Council resolutions and has been protected
from 29 more by U.S. vetoes?
Answer: Israel.
Question: Which country in the Middle East receives more than
one-third of all U.S. aid yet is the 16th richest country in the
world?
Answer: Israel.
Question: Which country in the Middle East receives U.S.
weapons for free and then sells the technology to the Republic of
China even at the objections of the U.S.?
Answer: Israel.
Question: Which country in the Middle East routinely insults
the American people by having its Prime Minister address the United
States Congress and lecturing them like children on why they have no
right to reduce foreign aid?
Answer: Israel.
Question: Which country in the Middle East had its Prime
Minister announce to his staff not to worry about what the United
States says because "We control America?"
Answer: Israel.
Question: What country in the Middle East was cited by Amnesty
International for demolishing more than 4000 innocent Palestinian
homes as a means of ethnic cleansing.
Answer: Israel.
Question: Which country in the Middle East has just recently
used a weapon of mass destruction, a one-ton smart bomb, dropping it
in the center of a highly populated area killing 15 civilians
including 9 children?
Answer: Israel.
Question: Which country in the Middle East routinely kills
young Palestinian children for no reason other than throwing stones at
armored vehicles, bulldozers, or tanks?
Answer: Israel.
Question: Which country in the Middle East signed the Oslo
Accords promising to halt any new Jewish Settlement construction, but
instead, has built more than 270 new settlements since the signing?
Answer: Israel.
Question: Which country in the Middle East has assassinated
more than 100 political officials of its opponent in the last 2 years
while killing hundreds of civilians in the process, including dozens
of children?
Answer: Israel.
Question: Which country in the Middle East regularly violates
the Geneva Convention by imposing collective punishment on entire
towns, villages, and camps, for the acts of a few, and even goes as
far as demolishing entire villages while people are still in their
homes?
Answer: Israel.
And Last Question : Who will call you “Anti-Semitic” if you agree with me?
Answer: Israel

U.S. general: Israel-Palestinian conflict foments anti-U.S. sentiment

U.S. General David Petraeus said on Wednesday that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was fomenting anti-American sentiment due to the perception of U.S. favoritism towards Israel.

Speaking to the Senate Armed Services Committee, Petraeus explained that "enduring hostilities between Israel and some of its neighbors present distinct challenges to our ability to advance our interests in the area of responsibility."

"Arab anger over the Palestinian question limits the strength and depth of U.S. partnerships with governments and peoples [in the region]," Petraeus said.

His comments follow a week of tense relations between Israel and the U.S. following Israel's announcement of plans to build 1,600 housing units in East Jerusalem, which was made public while U.S. Vice President Joe Biden was visiting the country.

On Sunday, another prominent member of Barak Obama's government, chief political adviser David Axelrod, said ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was imperative for U.S. security.

Speaking on Israel's announcement about building in East Jerusalem, Axelrod hinted that it was a deliberate attempt to thwart indirect talks with the Palestinians.

"It was an insult, but that's not the most important thing," Axelrod added, saying that the move was disruptive to upcoming proximity talks with the Palestinians and that the approval during Biden's visit "seemed calculated to undermine that, and that was - that was distressing to everyone who is promoting the idea of peace and security in the region."

Responding to the possibility that Israel's move could have any effect on U.S. soldiers in the region, Axelrod said that he believed "that that region and that issue is a flare point throughout the region, and so I'm not going to put it in those terms."

However, the top Obama aide added that he did "believe that it is absolutely imperative, not just for the security of Israel and the Palestinian people, who were, remember, at war just a year ago, but it is important for our own security that we move forward and resolve this very difficult issue."

Axelrod said that the bond between Israel and the United States was "strong," but adding that "for just that very reason, this was not the right way to behave."


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Rightists prepare banner declaring Obama as 'PLO agent'

"By the end of Ben Arie's term we will teach those Leftists what democracy is," he added. "Obama is anti-Semitic, pro-Arab, an agent of the PLO and we stand behind what the poster says."

A group of far-right activists on Tuesday announced their plan to hang hundreds of posters across the country depicting U.S. President Barack Obama under the headline "agent of the PLO." The banner is already on display in the office of National Union MK Michael Ben Ari.

"The poster is within the limits of the country's freedom of speech act," said Ben Ari's aide, Itamar Ben Gvir.

"I pity those who clapped during [U.S. Vice President] Joe Biden's speech," said Ben Gvir, referring to Biden's address to the Israeli people at Tel Aviv University last week.

"By the end of Ben Arie's term we will teach those Leftists what democracy is," he added. "Obama is anti-Semitic, pro-Arab, an agent of the PLO and we stand behind what the poster says."

Shortly after taking office last year, Obama made a key address to the Muslim world during a visit to Cairo, Egypt. The much anticipated 55-minute address touched on the Israel-Palestinian conflict, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S.-Arab ties and confronting terrorism.

The "Cairo speech" stirred tension in Israel and the U.S. regarding the president's new policy towards the Middle East, and created the impression that he was biased towards Arab countries, as he began with the Arab saying "salaam alaykum."

Following the speech, Obama made a personal phone call to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, guaranteeing that the U.S. would always support Israel.

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'U.S.-Israel relations at their worst in 35 years'

Israel's ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, has told the country's diplomats there that U.S.-Israeli relations face their worst crisis in 35 years, despite attempts by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office to project a sense of "business as usual."

Oren was speaking to Israeli consuls general in a conference call on Saturday night. Sunday, Netanyahu continued to consult with the forum of seven senior cabinet ministers over a list of demands that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made in a telephone conversation Friday.

Clinton harshly criticized the announcement last week of plans to expand the Ramat Shlomo neighborhood in East Jerusalem while U.S. Vice President Joe Biden was visiting Israel.

Haaretz has learned that Clinton's list includes at least four steps the United States expects Netanyahu to carry out to restore confidence in bilateral relations and permit the resumption of peace talks with the Palestinians.

1. Investigate the process that led to the announcement of the Ramat Shlomo construction plans in the middle of Biden's visit. The Americans seek an official response from Israel on whether this was a bureaucratic mistake or a deliberate act carried out for political reasons. Already on Saturday night, Netanyahu announced the convening of a committee to look into the issue.

2. Reverse the decision by the Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee to approve construction of 1,600 new housing units in Ramat Shlomo.

3. Make a substantial gesture toward the Palestinians enabling the renewal of peace talks. The Americans suggested that hundreds of Palestinian prisoners be released, that the Israel Defense Forces withdraw from additional areas of the West Bank and transfer them to Palestinian control, that the siege of the Gaza Strip be eased and further roadblocks in the West Bank be removed.

4. Issue an official declaration that the talks with the Palestinians, even indirect talks, will deal with all the conflict's core issues - borders, refugees, Jerusalem, security arrangements, water and settlements.

Two advisers of the prime minister, Yitzhak Molcho and Ron Dermer, held marathon talks Sunday with senior White House officials in Washington and U.S. Mideast envoy George Mitchell and his staff to try to calm the situation. Mitchell will return to Israel Tuesday and expects to hear if Netanyahu intends to take the proposed steps.

At the beginning of Sunday's cabinet meeting, Netanyahu tried to convey a message that there was no crisis in relations with the United States. But he sent precisely the opposite message to Oren in Washington.

In Oren's Saturday conference call with the Israeli consuls general, he said that the current crisis was the most serious with the Americans since a confrontation between Henry Kissinger and Yitzhak Rabin in 1975 over an American demand for a partial withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula.

At Sunday's cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said the matter had been blown out of proportion by the media. He added that "there was an unfortunate incident here that was innocently committed and was hurtful, and certainly should not have occurred."

He said steps would be taken to prevent such cases in the future. "It is extremely important to understand that the State of Israel and the United States have common interests," he said, adding that those interests "also require us to take decisions to change the situation in the country."

Four consuls discussed the conference call with Haaretz. Some noted that in previous conference calls with Oren, the ambassador took pains to make clear that relations with the United States were excellent. This time, however, Oren sounded extremely tense and pessimistic. Oren was quoted as saying that "the crisis was very serious and we are facing a very difficult period in relations [between the two countries]."

Oren told the consuls to lobby congressmen, Jewish community leaders and the media to convey Israel's position. He said the message to be relayed was that Israel had no intention to cause offense to Vice President Biden and that the matter had stemmed from actions by junior bureaucrats in the Interior Ministry and was caused by a lack of coordination between government offices. "It should be stressed that [our] relations with the United States are very important to us," Oren reportedly said.

Several of the consuls suggested waiting, but Oren hinted that his approach reflected Netanyahu's wishes. "These instructions come from the highest level in Jerusalem," he was quoted as saying, adding that the utmost must be done to calm matters.

Oren told participants in the conference call of a meeting he was summoned to on Friday with Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg for a reprimand. Oren spoke of his surprise at being summoned after believing that the crisis had ended on Thursday.

"Steinberg read to me from the [American] letter of protest, whose content was extremely harsh," Oren reportedly said. Despite several requests for a reaction from the embassy, no response was forthcoming at press time.

Source:

Obama aide condemns 'destructive' Israeli homes plan

Israel's announcement of plans to build 1,600 homes for Jews in East Jerusalem was "destructive" to peace efforts, a top aide to Barack Obama says.

David Axelrod said the move, which overshadowed a visit to Israel by US Vice-President Joe Biden, was also an "insult" to the United States.

Israel's prime minister has tried to play down the unusually bitter diplomatic row between the two allies.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week issued her own stern rebuke.

Mrs Clinton told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by telephone on Friday that the Israeli move was "deeply negative" for US-Israeli relations.

'Affront'

Under the Israeli plans, the new homes will be built in Ramat Shlomo in East Jerusalem.

The international community considers East Jerusalem occupied territory and says Israel's building there is illegal under international law. But Israel regards East Jerusalem - which it annexed in 1967 - as its territory.

The Palestinians are threatening to boycott newly agreed, indirect talks unless the Ramat Shlomo project is cancelled.

"This was an affront, it was an insult but most importantly it undermined this very fragile effort to bring peace to that region," David Axelrod, one of President Obama's closest aides, told NBC television.

"We have just started proximity talks, that is shuttle diplomacy, between the Palestinians and the Israelis, and for this announcement to come at that time was very destructive," he said.

At a cabinet meeting on Sunday, Mr Netanyahu began by giving a survey of media coverage of the spat with the Americans.

"I propose not to be carried away and to calm down," he said. "We know how to handle these situations, calmly, responsibly and seriously."

He went on to admit that the announcement of project during the vice-president's visit had been offensive, but it had been an accident.

Mr Netanyahu has now set up a committee of senior officials to vet the timing of such announcements.

However, the BBC's Paul Wood, in Jerusalem, says it is clear the Americans are not persuaded that this was all just a bureaucratic mix up.

The ill-timed announcement on settlements has allowed Mr Netanyahu to shore up his right-wing coalition, our correspondent says.

But Israel needs the US to deal with Iran's nuclear programme - and that is an issue which Mr Netanyahu himself has said is more important than any other facing Israel.

Close to 500,000 Jews live in more than 100 settlements built since Israel's 1967 occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. They are illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this.

The Quartet of Middle East peace mediators - the US, Russia, the EU and the UN - has also condemned the Israeli housing announcement and said it would review the situation at its ministerial meeting scheduled for 19 March in Moscow.

Source:

Clinton rebukes Israel over East Jerusalem homes

1 Gilo: 850 homes approved for publication and planning objections in Nov 2009
2 Pisgat Zeev: 600 homes approved for publication and planning objections in Jan 2010
3 Sheikh Jarrah: Several Palestinian families evicted in past 18 months to make way for Jewish settlers after court ruled in ownership dispute
4 Ramat Shlomo: 1,600 homes approved for publication and planning objections in Mar 2010
5 Silwan: Demolition orders on 88 Palestinian homes built without difficult-to-get permits - Israel planning controversial renewal project
6. West Bank barrier: Making Palestinian movement between West Bank and Jerusalem harder - Israel says it's for security

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has sharply rebuked Israel over its recent decision to build new settlements in East Jerusalem.

She told Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu by telephone that the move was "deeply negative" for US-Israeli relations.

The BBC's Washington correspondent, Kim Ghattas, says it was a rare and sharp rebuke from Washington.

Israel's announcement overshadowed a visit by US Vice-President Joe Biden aimed at restarting peace talks.

Since then the Palestinians have indicated they will not return to the negotiating table unless the Israeli decision is revoked.

Apology

America's top diplomat delivered her rebuke during a 43-minute telephone conversation with Mr Netanyahu, the US state department said.

US state department spokesman PJ Crowley said Mrs Clinton called "to make clear that the United States considered the announcement to be a deeply negative signal about Israel's approach to the bilateral relationship and contrary to the spirit of the vice-president's trip".

"The secretary said she could not understand how this happened, particularly in light of the United States's strong commitment to Israel's security," he added.

"She made clear that the Israeli government needed to demonstrate not just through words but through specific actions that they are committed to this relationship and to the peace process."

The Quartet of Middle East peace mediators - the US, Russia, the EU and the UN - also condemned the Israeli housing announcement and said it would review the situation at its ministerial meeting scheduled for 19 March in Moscow.

Mr Netanyahu earlier apologised for the timing of the settlement announcement, which was made as Mr Biden was holding a day of talks in Jerusalem.

He said he had summoned Interior Minister Eli Yishai to reprimand him.

Israeli and Palestinian leaders had agreed to hold indirect, "proximity talks" in a bid to restart the peace process, which has been stalled for more than a year.

But after the announcement, the Palestinian Authority said talks would be "very difficult" if the plans for the homes were not rescinded.

Close to 500,000 Jews live in more than 100 settlements built since Israel's 1967 occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. They are illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this.

The latest announcement by the Jerusalem municipality approves 1,600 new housing units in the East Jerusalem settlement of Ramat Shlomo.

U.S. promises to halt Israeli building in East Jerusalem

A Palestinian official told the newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi Saturday that U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell promised Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas that the U.S. will bring a halt to Israeli building in East Jerusalem.

"In a telephone conversation, Mitchell said the U.S. would make sure Israel stops building in the area," the Palestinian official told the London based Arabic daily newspaper.

The U.S. has recently expressed frustration over Israel's announcement on
Tuesday of new settlement construction, a move that deeply embarrassed visiting U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and imperiled U.S. plans to launch indirect negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

In an interview with CNN aired Friday night, United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Israel's announcement of new construction of homes in a Jewish neighborhood in East Jerusalem was "insulting" to the United States.

"I mean, it was just really a very unfortunate and difficult moment for everyone -- the United States, our vice president who had gone to reassert our strong support for Israeli security -- and I regret deeply that that occurred and made that known," Clinton said during the CNN interview.

While Clinton did not blame Netanyahu personally for the announcement, she said "He is the prime minister. Like the president or secretary of state ... ultimately, you are responsible."

During a phone call to Netanyahu earlier on Friday, Clinton told Netanyahu that his government sent a "deeply negative signal" by taking steps which undermined renewed Middle East peace talks.

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said Clinton told Netanyahu the announcement was a "deeply negative signal about Israel's approach to the bilateral relationship ... and had undermined trust and confidence in the peace process."

"The secretary said she could not understand how this happened, particularly in light of the United States' strong commitment to Israel's security," Crowley said.

"She made clear that the Israeli government needed to demonstrate not just through words but through specific actions that they are committed to this relationship and to the peace process," he said.

Clinton's rebuke of Netanyahu capped a week of tense exchanges between the United States and Israel, which on Tuesday announced it was building 1,600 new settler homes in an area of the occupied West Bank it annexed to Jerusalem.

The announcement infuriated the West Bank-based Palestinian leadership, which threatened to pull out of U.S.-brokered indirect "proximity" talks with Israel that Washington hoped would be the first step toward relaunching full peace negotiations after more than a year.

Another senior U.S. official said Friday that Netanyahu's political standing is "perilous" because of divisions within his coalition over efforts to pursue peace with the Palestinians.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, predicted "a dicey period here in the next couple days to a couple of weeks" as Washington tries to get the indirect talks launched.


Quartet condemns Israel: Unilateral action cannot prejudge talks' outcome

In addition to the U.S. condemnation of Israel's announcement, the Quartet of Middle East peacemakers also condemned on Friday Israel's announcement approving new construction in east Jerusalem.

"The Quartet condemns Israel's decision to advance planning for new housing units in east Jerusalem," the statement said. "The Quartet has agreed to closely monitor developments in Jerusalem and to keep under consideration additional steps that may be required to address the situation on the ground."

"Unilateral action by the Israelis or Palestinians cannot prejudge the outcome of (peace) negotiations and will not be recognized by the international community," the statement said.

"The Quartet will take full stock of the situation at its meeting in Moscow on March 19," the statement said.

The Quartet called on all concerned to support the urgent resumption of
dialogue between the parties and to promote an atmosphere that is conducive to successful negotiations to resolve all outstanding issues of the conflict.

The group reiterated that Arab-Israeli peace and the establishment of an
independent, contiguous and viable state of Palestine is in the fundamental interests of the parties, of all states in the region, and of the international community.


ADL 'stunned' by U.S. condemnation of Israel

The U.S. based Anti-Defamation League said late Friday that it was "stunned" by Clinton's "dressing down" of Israel.

"We cannot remember an instance when such harsh language was directed at a friend and ally of the United States," said Abraham Foxman, director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), in a statement.

The ADL called Clinton's remarks a "gross overreaction" to a "policy difference among friends."

"One can only wonder how far the U.S. is prepared to go in distancing itself from Israel in order to placate the Palestinians in the hope they see it is in their interest to return to the negotiating table," Foxman said.

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Analysis: "Welcome to Israel, Joe!"

Palestine Center Brief No. 193 (11 March 2010)

By Yousef Munayyer

When he visited the Middle East, then Senator Barack Obama had a rude awakening. He was on the ritual visit for American presidential candidates to Israel, which usually consist of touring sites of significance to Jews and declaring support for the state of Israel. This is important for American politicians who pay homage to an influential pro-Israel lobby, and it was even more important for President Obama. His background, his middle name, his father’s religion and his associations with Arabs and Muslims made him a target of critics who claimed he would be soft on security.

So, with a yarmulke upon his head, Barack Hussein Obama recited prayers at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. But before his prayers could transcend the clouds and make it up to heaven, Obama was reminded just what he was getting into. In the crowd of onlookers and media that had formed around him, a heckler yelled out, “Jerusalem is ours, Obama. Jerusalem is not for sale, Obama.”

Though it is doubtful that the unidentified heckler was Binyamin Netanyahu, the current Israeli prime minister, the same message was sent to the Obama administration this week from the Israeli government. After months of disagreement with the Israelis over their settlement policy, Vice President Joe Biden became the highest ranking Obama administration official to visit Israel and he was greeted by the announcement of 1,600 new settlement homes in occupied East Jerusalem.

Welcome to Israel, Joe.

Whether from hecklers or through government declarations the message from Israel to Washington is clear: we’ll take what we want and you cannot stop us.

The problem is the message from Washington to Israel has been far too ambiguous. The Israeli government, addicted to gobbling up Palestinian land, is taking every opportunity to exploit this ambiguity and embarrass American and Palestinian officials while they are at it.

Some argue that the Obama administration made a strategic mistake by raising expectations before guaranteeing full Israeli compliance with a settlement freeze. They are only partially right. The Obama administration was, in fact, right to raise expectations and capitalize on a wave of good faith resulting from a historic election welcomed around the world and in the Middle East in particular. The strategic mistake, and a big one at that, was the failure to apply the necessary pressure on Israel to force compliance with a full settlement freeze.

It has been said that to do the same thing over and over again and expect different results is insanity. Why then should the United States expect anything other than continued Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank and in Jerusalem without applying the necessary sanctions to modify Israeli behavior? It is very clear, given the insulting announcement that the Israelis greeted Vice President Biden with, that asking them politely is simply not working.

For two decades of “peace process” the United States has failed to pressure Israel and, low and behold during this time period, settlements have only grown in size and population. In the last 20 years, the number of settlers on occupied Palestinian land has doubled and walls have been built around these Israeli colonies creating a near inextricable reality.

If this doesn’t change, nothing will stop Israel from completing its colonial project and the world will continue to live with an apartheid state in its midst.

The tools for change have always been in Washington but domestic politics have always made selecting to use these tools unpopular choices. The U.S. Congress is staunchly pro-Israel and looks at the Middle East blindly following the whims of influential pro-Israel lobbies.

Therefore, the Executive Branch will have to take unilateral steps to change the tone. The president has multiple tools at his disposal through the State Department, like the American vote in the Security Council, for example, which has been the single veto on nearly 40 occasions to save Israel from condemnation.

Binyamin Netanyahu is scheduled to be visiting DC at the end of this month; interestingly President Obama is conveniently scheduled to be traveling at the same time. Wouldn’t it be fitting for the White House to take a page from Israel’s book and announce a halt to U.S. support while the Israeli prime minister is in Washington?

Maybe, just maybe, if we communicated with the Israelis through a method they are familiar with they will finally get the message.

Yousef Munayyer is Executive Director of the Palestine Center. This policy brief may be used without permission but with proper attribution to the Center.

The views in this brief are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The Jerusalem Fund.

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Joe Biden steps up pressure on Israel over E Jerusalem

"Yesterday, the decision by the Israeli government to advance planning for new housing units in East Jerusalem undermines that very trust - the trust that we need right now in order to begin as well as produce profitable negotiations."

US Vice-President Joe Biden has again condemned Israel over a controversial building project, saying its approval undermined trust in the peace process.

Mr Biden was speaking after meeting the Palestinian Authority President, Mahmoud Abbas, in the West Bank.

Mr Abbas also said the approval of another 1,600 homes in occupied East Jerusalem threatened the peace process and demanded the plans be scrapped.

Israel has insisted the move had nothing to do with Mr Biden's visit.

'Lasting peace'

Israel and the Palestinians had agreed to hold indirect "proximity talks" in a bid to restart the peace process, which has been stalled for 17 months.

However, the Israeli settlement announcement has cast a shadow on those talks, with the Palestinian Authority saying the approval showed Israel believed US negotiation efforts had failed before they had even begun.

Mr Biden told a joint press conference with Mr Abbas that he would condemn all statements that inflamed the situation or prejudiced the peace process.

He said the US would play an active and sustained role in the talks process and warned that it was "incumbent on both sides not to complicate the process".

"Yesterday, the decision by the Israeli government to advance planning for new housing units in East Jerusalem undermines that very trust - the trust that we need right now in order to begin as well as produce profitable negotiations."

Mr Biden said achieving peace would require both Israel and the Palestinians to take "historically bold" steps.

Mr Abbas said he was addressing the Israeli people in saying that the "time is right for peace based on two states - an Israeli state living in peace and security alongside a Palestinian state".

He said there should be a "permanent, lasting and just peace" that took in all areas, including Syria and Lebanon.

But he was also highly critical of the planning decision, saying it represented "the ruining of trust and a serious blow" to peace efforts.

Mr Abbas has refused to resume direct negotiations with the Israeli government because of its refusal to put a complete stop to the expansion of settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Israeli denial

In November, Israel announced a 10-month suspension of new building in the West Bank, under heavy US pressure. But it considers areas within the Jerusalem municipality as its territory and the restrictions do not apply.

Close to 500,000 Jews live in more than 100 settlements built since Israel's 1967 occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. They are considered illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this.

During their dinner on Tuesday evening, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Mr Biden that he had no prior knowledge of the decision to authorise the new housing units in the ultra-Orthodox settlement of Ramat Shlomo, officials said.

He said the plans had been submitted three years ago and had only received initial approval that day.

"The district committees approve plans weekly without informing me," Interior Minister Eli Yishai, the chairman of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, told Israel Radio on Wednesday morning.

"If I'd have known, I would have postponed the authorisation by a week or two since we had no intention of provoking anyone."

But the US government has not accepted Israel's explanation that the announcement was essentially part of a bureaucratic process that had no connection with Mr Biden's visit, says BBC Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen in Jerusalem.

Israel, deliberately or not, inflicted something close to a humiliation on the Obama administration and the words they chose in reaction reflected that, our correspondent says.

The UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband condemned the announcement by Israel.

"This is a bad decision at the wrong time. It will give strength to those who argue that Israel is not serious about peace," he said in a press statement.

"I condemn it as certain to undermine the mutual confidence we need."

EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton also condemned the move, saying it risked peace talks before they had even begun and called on Israel to reverse the decision.

The Arab League was due to meet in Cairo to decide on a response.

Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev insisted Israel had "a very good working relationship and a very good personal relationship" with the US.

He dismissed speculation that the interior ministry's announcement was a deliberate move by some members of Mr Netanyahu's cabinet to scupper any chance of peace talks.

The US special envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, is scheduled to arrive in the region next week to conduct the second round of proximity talks.

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How did U.S. groups react to Biden's condemnation of Israel?

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden's condemnation of Israel's plan to construct 1,600 new housing units in East Jerusalem was welcomed on Wednesday by advocacy groups and analysts who called for Israel to be held accountable for actions that undermine peace talks with the Palestinians.

The U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation (U.S. Campaign) lauded Biden's statement "condemning the decision by the government of Israel to advance planning for new housing units in East Jerusalem" and his promise that the United States will hold Israel "accountable for any statements or actions that inflame tensions or prejudice the outcome of talks."

According to Josh Ruebner, National Advocacy Director of the U.S. Campaign,

"It's about time that the Obama administration is threatening to hold Israel accountable for obstructing U.S. policy goals to end illegal settlement expansion in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian West Bank and East Jerusalem and lift the illegal blockade of the Israeli-occupied Palestinian Gaza Strip."

"The Obama administration must move from warnings to concrete steps to hold Israel accountable for its ongoing defiance of U.S. policy goals and international law," Ruebner added. "The most appropriate way of holding Israel accountable would be to cut off the $3 billion in military aid to Israel proposed by President Obama in his FY2011 budget request."

Americans for Peace Now said: "The optimism has already dissipated. The declaration to build in East Jerusalem is a perfect example of what Israel cannot do if it wants to be taken as a serious negotiating partner. The fact that the declaration came during Joe Biden's visit to Israel only adds insult to injury. If the U.S. wants meaning progress, it must put real pressure on the two sides and present clear U.S. principles on the core issues."

Meanwhile, Haim Malka, deputy director and senior fellow in the Middle East Program at Center for Strategic and International Studies, said: "If Netanyahu is at all serious about talks with the Palestinian Authority, this will be just the beginning of his coalition woes. Meanwhile, the Israeli bilateral relationship with the United States has just become much more difficult. It is hard to remember a time when a senior U.S. official used the word 'condemn' to describe the actions of any ally, let alone a close ally such as Israel, but that is precisely what the vice president did."

Abraham Foxman, head of the Anti-Defamation League, called the timing of Israel's decision unfortunate but said it was not Biden's job to issue a condemnation. "The condemnation should have been issued by the State Department in Washington," said Foxman.

"By taking this erroneous step, Biden undermined the central purpose of his trip to Israel - strengthening the friendship and cooperation between Israel and the U.S. "

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