the jerusalem post
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu probably will not respond to President Barak Obama’s questions about east Jerusalem until after Passover — even though Obama wanted a reply by March 26.
Obama reportedly was hoping Netanyahu would agree to halt construction in east Jerusalem. The president wanted to present that guarantee to the Arab League meeting in Libya over the weekend. In return the U.S. wanted the league to support the start of talks between Israel and Palestinians.
Officials in the Prime Minister’s Office threw a complete blackout on the Netanyahu-Obama discussions, and also gave very sketchy information about the commitments that the U.S. is demanding of Israel as a precursor to starting the proximity talks with the Palestinians.
Netanyahu’s spokesman Nir Hefetz told Army Radio on March 26 that “there are several steps that the Americans would like to see Israel take in order to restart the peace process. We returned from the U.S. with the understanding that on one hand, the construction policy in Jerusalem will remain unchanged, and on the other hand, Israel is prepared to make gestures in order to resume the peace process,” Hefetz said.
The main point of contention between Netanyahu and Obama, Hefetz confirmed, was the U.S. demand that Israel also extend the 10-month West Bank building moratorium.
Netyanyahu, who returned to Israel March 25 from a visit to the United States — that included a meeting with the president on March 23 — spent the last couple days with his senior ministers working on a responde to Obama. But it became obvious as the weekend approached that no response would be offered until Passover ends on April 6.
A Palestinian Authority official in Ramallah, said the U.S. administration informed the Palestinian Authority that the Netanyahu meetings in Washington did not produce any agreement on the issue of construction in east Jerusalem.
The official said that P.A. President Mahmoud Abbas met in Amman with David Hale, U.S. 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 P.A. official said.
Hale also told Abbas that the U.S. 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, 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.”
U.S. officials indicated that Israel had bridged some of the gaps between the two countries during their marathon consultations, even though no final resolution was presented. Obama’s and Netanyahu’s staffs toiled late into the night on March 24 for a second straight day.
“I think we’re making progress on important issues,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters on the following day, but he declined to go into specifics.
The administration’s treatment of Netanyahu during his meeting with Obama created the impression of a deep crisis in relations. The White House refused to allow non-official photographers record the Obama-Netanyahu meeting, and no statement was issued afterward — as is common when most foreign leaders meet the president.
The key problem identified by U.S. officials is that Obama does not accept Netanyahu’s declaration at the AIPAC conference on March 22 that Jerusalem is 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 Israel’s Channel 2 that while Israel was not looking for a fight with the U.S., 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.
Regarding confidence building measures to the Palestinians, Netanyahu 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, sources said.
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 — said 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.
Netanyahu, according to senior officials, said that while the U.S. 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, chief P.A. 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 P.A. 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 P.A. 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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Hilary Leila Krieger contributed to this report from Washington.
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White House, Netanyahu leave things on low boil
ron kampeas | jta
After three days of intensive talks, the effort by U.S. and Israeli leaders to move past recent tensions appeared no closer to resolution as of press time.
The White House said March 24 that there were “still disagreements” after three days of meetings, including some 120 minutes of nighttime meetings March 23 between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Barack Obama.
In a break with custom that seemed linked to the current state of U.S.-Israel relations, reporters were not invited to see the leaders shake hands and begin their talks. It is highly unusual for a visiting ally not to be seen with the president, either for photographs or statements.
In addition, Netanyahu canceled a series of interviews and briefings with the media that had been scheduled for March 24.
“The president and prime minister met and had a full discussion about issues related to the U.S.-Israel relationship, including regional security and peace efforts,” White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said.
“The president asked the prime minister to take steps to build confidence for proximity talks so that progress can be made toward peace. There are areas of agreement, and some areas of disagreement, but the conversation is ongoing.”
“Proximity talks” refers to indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
Netanyahu met with his advisers March 24 at the Israeli Embassy, about five miles from the White House, in a bid to come up with something that would satisfy the Obama administration.
Israeli and U.S. teams reportedly wanted to conclude the prime minister’s visit with a joint message. The feeling in the White House was that Netanyahu did not deliver the goods, and Ynetnews reported that there was a tense atmosphere at the end of the leaders’ meetings, even though an Israeli statement said that there was a “good atmosphere” at the meetings.
U.S. officials were reportedly less than impressed with a flow chart Netanyahu pulled out at every meeting showing the bureaucratic hurdles involved in building in Israel — and saying that, at each stage, an announcement is likely. Netanyahu’s argument is that he cannot control the workings of clerks deep in the bureaucracy.
Two weeks ago, when Israel announced a 1,600-unit housing project in east Jerusalem during a visit by Vice President Joe Biden, U.S. officials called the announcement an “insult” and Palestinians backed out of the talks.
The Obama administration is pressing for a total settlement freeze. Netanyahu has said building in all parts of Jerusalem will continue.
According to reports, Netanyahu showed up at the White House at 5:30 p.m. March 23 and talked with Obama for 90 minutes, about 30 minutes longer than scheduled. After the meeting ended in serious disagreement, Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and their advisers reportedly went to a nearby room to talk things over.
Some 90 minutes later, the Israeli daily Ha’aretz reported, Netanyahu requested a second meeting with the president, who had already left for his residential quarters. Obama returned to the Oval Office and met 35 more minutes, although Ha’aretz reported that the second meeting also ended in disagreement.
In a visit to Capitol Hill March 23 before his meetings with Obama, Netanyahu received a warm, bipartisan welcome, although several congressional sources cautioned against taking that as a sign of agreement with Netanyahu’s stance or that the tensions have been resolved.
Ahead of the meeting, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told reporters that Netanyahu is “a man prepared to make sacrifices for the sake of peace and security” of Israel. She also stressed the bipartisan support for Israel, saying, “In Congress, we speak with one voice on the subject of Israel.”
However, after the meeting, one Capitol Hill staffer said that many in Congress were unmoved by Netanyahu’s maps showing Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem and his flowcharts showing Israeli bureaucracy. “It’s a straw man,” the staffer said. “It’s trying to repeat a trick that worked once … by making it a question about Jerusalem rather than negotiations.”
P.J. Crowley, the State Department spokesman, said the United States and Israel were currently engaged in “give and take.”
“We are not going to talk about the precise steps both sides have to take,” Crowley said. “We will continue to discuss those steps privately.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.