Quote:
Israel claims Jerusalem settlement plan would not harm Palestinians
Netanyahu makes comments after ambassador to Washington says ties with US in 'crisis of historic proportions'
The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, stepped up the row over Jewish settlement plans in East Jerusalem today, saying they would not hurt the city's Palestinian residents.
Speaking to Israel's parliament, Netanyahu said the construction of homes for Jews in the city's eastern sector "in no way" hurts Palestinians. His comments came after an admission by the Israeli ambassador to Washington that Israel's relations with the US are at their worst for 35 years.
US officials are reported to have urged Israel to reconsider sudden plans to build 1,600 homes in the occupied area, after they were described by one of Barack Obama's closest aides as an "affront" to the US that could undermine peace efforts in the Middle East.
Earlier, Netanyahu apologised for announcing the plans during a visit last week to Israel by the US vice-president, Joe Biden. "I recommend not to get carried away and to calm down," he said yesterday.
But he refused to cancel the programme and his attempt to downplay the dispute was exposed today when Israel's ambassador to the US, Michael Oren, admitted that relations between the two countries had reached a historic crisis.
"Israel's ties with the United States are in their worst crisis since 1975 … a crisis of historic proportions," Oren was quoted as saying in the Israeli media.
Unnamed Israeli officials have told Associated Press that the US is pressing Israel to scrap the building project. Israel's foreign ministry has refused to comment on either report.
Senior figures in the Obama administration have been unusually forthright in expressing frustration at the plans. On Friday Hillary Clinton, the secretary of state, said the announcement was "insulting", and yesterday David Axelrod, one of the architects of Obama's election victory, said the timing was "very destructive".
Speaking on NBC's Meet the Press, he said: "This was an affront, it was an insult but most importantly it undermined this very fragile effort to bring peace to that region."
The announcement last Tuesday that thousands of new homes were planned in Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem came on the eve of Biden's arrival in the region for discussions to restart "proximity talks" between Israel and Palestinians, with the US mediating. Almost immediately, the news prompted Palestinian leaders to pull out of the new round of talks.
Israel has agreed to slow construction of settlements in the West Bank but has refused to halt building in East Jerusalem. Israel considers East Jerusalem, which it captured in the 1967 war, its sovereign territory and Netanyahu has spoken frequently in defence of settlements there.
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Israel claims Jerusalem settlement plan would not harm Palestinians | World news | guardian.co.uk
in case you weren't following this, right about the time biden was saying that the us committment to israel, whatever that means, is "iron-clad" netanyahu, that rightwing disaster, announced this:
Israel approves more construction in West Bank settlement | World news | guardian.co.uk
in case you don't have a sense of the extent of israeli colonial occupation of the west bank, here is a map from 2009:
La Cisjordanie occupée
and two other maps (these from 2007) that show the israeli take-over of east jerusalem:
Comment Israël confisque Jérusalem-Est
Comment Israël confisque Jérusalem-Est (II)
it seems to me pretty obvious that the israeli settlement program and the american position up to now of looking the other way are **the** primary obstacles to any coherent peace, any possibility of an autonomous viable palestine, any possibility of an end to israeli occupation.
but i am wondering if netanyahu managed through a singular combination of arrogance or ignorance (where's the line? it's not always obvious) and cloddishness has managed to bring about a pretty abrupt change in the american relation to the israeli settlement program. in response to what the obama administration obviously sees as a deliberate attempt to embarass it, there is actual pressure coming from the united states on israel to not build more settlements, to stop.
this seems to me quite new.
how lasting a change in american policy toward israeli settlement programs do you see this as being?
what do you think of this shift?