Israel snubs US demands over settlements
Israel point blank defied a US demand to stop all building in West Bank Jewish settlements today, vowing it will press ahead with construction.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said yesterday that President Barack Obama wanted Israel to halt to all work.
But an Israeli government spokesman responded by saying “normal life in those communities must be allowed to continue.” He confirmed that this meant some construction would continue in existing settlements.
The new conflict with Washington came on the same day Mr Obama was due to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the White House. Mr Abbas has said the Palestinian demand for freezing settlements will be at the top of his agenda in the talks.
Mr Obama’s administration has been more explicit in its criticism of Israeli settlement policy than its predecessor. The US and much of the world consider the settlements an obstacle to peace because they are built on land the Palestinians claim for a future state.
More than 280,000 Jewish settlers live among more than two million Palestinians in the West Bank.
The spokesman said the fate of existing settlements will be determined in peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. He said Israel has pledged to build no new settlements and to remove unauthorised outposts in the West Bank.
While Israel could flout US opposition, it is wary of picking a fight with its closest and most important ally.
Israeli officials proposed a compromise earlier this week. In exchange for removing 22 outposts, they would ask the US to permit new construction in existing settlements. Mrs Clinton’s remarks followed that proposal.
But even the limited step of removing outposts faces stiff opposition from the Israeli right. Settler news site Arutz Sheva reported today that leading rabbis linked to the settlement movement had issued a call to soldiers to disobey orders to demolish the outposts.
The new Israeli and the US leaders have strikingly different approaches to Israeli-Palestinian relations.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu refuses to endorse Palestinian independence, a notion supported by Mr Obama, his predecessor and the previous Israeli government.
Mr Obama told Mr Netanyahu last week that the US sees stopping settlements as key to a peace deal that would see a Palestinian state created alongside Israel.
