U.S. holds firm against Israel settlement policy
Reuters
Date: 3/22/2010
By Andrew Quinn and Jeffrey Heller
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday stressed U.S. opposition to Israel's policy of expanding Jewish settlements as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived seeking a way forward for Mideast peace.
Netanyahu was due to meet President Barack Obama, Clinton and other top U.S. officials on the three–day trip, which comes amid strains in U.S. relations with its key Mideast ally.
The United States and Israel have been at loggerheads after Netanyahu's government announced a new expansion of a Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem, embarrassing visiting U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and spurring Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to threaten to pull out of indirect peace talks that had only just been launched.
Clinton called the announcement "insulting" and demanded that Netanyahu outline specific steps to restore confidence in the peace process –– something both sides say he has now done, although neither has released specifics.
Clinton, in a speech to the influential pro–Israel AIPAC lobby group on Washington on Monday, said Israel faced "difficult but necessary choices" on Mideast peace and called Israel's settlement policy a problem.
"New construction in East Jerusalem or the West Bank undermines mutual trust and endangers the proximity talks that are the first step toward the full negotiations that both sides want and need," Clinton said.
"It exposes daylight between Israel and the United States that others in the region could hope to exploit. And it undermines America's unique ability to play a role –– an essential role, I might add –– in the peace process."
A senior Republican member of the House of Representatives, Eric Cantor, criticized the Obama administration's firm line on Israeli settlements, highlighting what could become an emotive issue in this year's U.S. congressional elections.
"Now is not the time to be picking fights with Israel in what seems to be an attempt to curry favor with the Arab world," Cantor, the No. 2 House Republican, said in a speech to AIPAC.
"Let's face it. Israel is not the problem. From Yemen to Afghanistan to Pakistan, terrorists are not going to lay down their arms against America if we abandon Israel," he added.
DEFIANT ON SETTLEMENTS
Before his departure for Washington, Netanyahu appeared defiant on settlements, saying Israel would not stop Jewish settlement construction in areas around East Jerusalem captured by Israel in 1967.
Citing biblical and historical links, Israel sees all of Jerusalem as its capital, a claim not recognized internationally. The Palestinians want East Jerusalem to be the capital of a future state on the West Bank and the Gaza strip.
Netanyahu will address the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference on Monday before meeting Obama at the White House on Tuesday.
Netanyahu's spokesman, Mark Regev, said the Israeli leader would use his AIPAC speech to focus on Iran, the peace process and U.S.–Israel relations, and would stress that Jerusalem is Israel's capital and "not a settlement."
An Israeli official traveling with Netanyahu said Israel hoped Abbas would agree to start the negotiations, especially after a statement on Friday by the "Quartet" of Middle East mediators that backed his position on the settlements.
But chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said Israel's decision to continue settlement building in and around East Jerusalem would prove fatal to the peace process.
Under U.S. and international pressure, Netanyahu announced a 10–month moratorium on new housing starts in Jewish settlements in November. But he excluded East Jerusalem and nearby annexed areas of the West Bank from the temporary building freeze.
Clinton, who last year praised Netanyahu's moratorium announcement, said on Monday the United States still regarded continued Jewish settlements as illegitimate and urged both sides not to take steps to undermine the fragile peace effort.
U.S. envoy George Mitchell urged "a period of calm and quiet" after meeting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the Jordanian capital Amman on Monday.
Along with the settlement dispute, growing violence in the occupied West Bank –– where Israeli forces have killed four Palestinians in two days –– has deepened the gloom surrounding Mitchell's peace efforts.
(Additional reporting by Suleiman al–Khalidi in Amman; editing by Will Dunham)
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