White House blasts Israeli plan to continue settlement construction

Alarmed by Israeli plans to build new housing units in settlements and dimming prospects for American peace efforts, the Obama administration on Friday put out a rare and harsh public rebuke of its main Mideast ally.

The White House said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's settlement plans were "inconsistent" with commitments the Jewish state has made previously and harmful to U.S. attempts to lay the groundwork for a resumption in peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

"United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued settlement expansion and we urge that it stop," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said in a statement. "We are working to create a climate in which negotiations can take place, and such actions make it harder to create such a climate."

Israeli plan for settlement building angers US

Israel said Friday it will construct hundreds of new housing units in West Bank settlements before any slowdown in building, an announcement that drew harsh criticism from Washington, which demands a complete settlement freeze as a prelude to renewing Mideast peace talks.

Israeli officials painted the move as a concession to the U.S. demand because it might bring a temporary halt to other construction. But since it would also mean building the new units and finishing some 2,500 others now under construction, it looked more like defiance than acquiescence.

Israel's proposal also does not include any freeze in building in east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians hope to make their future capital.

Peres: Palestinian state first, full peace later

Israeli President Shimon Peres, a longtime advocate of peace with the Palestinians, said Friday that a comprehensive settlement resolving the century-old dispute was not currently achievable.

He called instead for a Palestinian state under a provisional arrangement even without a formal peace deal.

"Israel has decided to make peace on the basis of two states - an Israeli state and a Palestinian state," he told the Ambrosetti Forum, a gathering of political and business leaders on the shores of Italy's Lake Como. "I would like that we do it in one step. Apparently we cannot do it in one step."

Israel PM: progress made with US on settlements

The Israeli and Palestinian leaders are likely to hold their first meeting in the coming weeks, both sides indicated Wednesday, in what would be an important step toward a formal resumption of peace talks and a key achievement for U.S. President Barack Obama.

The announcements came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held four hours of talks with Obama's Mideast envoy, George Mitchell, in London on Wednesday. Mitchell has been pressing Israel to halt construction of West Bank settlements as a confidence-building gesture toward the Palestinians.

Before the meeting, Netanyahu said he was making headway in defusing the unusually public disagreement with the Americans. Netanyahu has said he wants a compromise that would allow Israel to proceed with some settlement construction while at the same time restarting peace talks with the Palestinians.

Huckabee slams Obama in pro-settlement Israel visit

JERUSALEM — Former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee slammed President Barack Obama's policies toward Israel on Monday in a visit here that underscored the tensions between the Obama administration and the Israeli government over Jewish settlements in what traditionally have been Palestinian areas.

Huckabee criticized the Obama administration's calls for ending such settlements and said Obama's position had only encouraged the Palestinian government not to negotiate with Israel.

More important than Huckabee's words, however, was where he chose to deliver them: at several controversial Jewish enclaves in the mostly Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem, which both Israel and the Palestinian Authority claim.

By CLIFF CHURGIN
McClatchy Newspapers

JERUSALEM -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to approve the construction of hundreds of new homes in the occupied West Bank before he considers a freeze on building new Jewish settlements. The homes would be in addition to 2,500 houses that already are under construction in the West Bank.

The White House, which has called on Israel to halt all settlement construction in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, which Israel seized from Jordan in the 1967 Six-Day War, swiftly responded Friday with an unusually blunt statement. "We regret the reports of Israel's plans to approve additional settlement construction," President Barack Obama's press secretary, Robert Gibbs, said in a statement.

"As the president has said before, the United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued settlement expansion and we urge that it stop. We are working to create a climate in which negotiations can take place, and such actions make it harder to create such a climate," the statement said.

Obama reportedly had been hoping to announce a resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks when he travels to the United Nations later this month. The Israeli move appears to undercut that goal, although Netanyahu and his aides have been discussing curbs on future settlement activity with Obama's special envoy, former Maine Sen. George Mitchell.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has demanded that Israel halt all settlement construction as a precondition to Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

Palestinian presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh condemned the announcement, calling it "part of a policy of maneuvering and waiting that has been going on for 15 years, and it is unacceptable."

Rudeineh told McClatchy Newspapers that he expects Israel to implement a complete settlement freeze, saying: "There should be a total freeze according to what Obama said."

An aide to Netanyahu, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly, said the Israeli leader would consider a settlement freeze, but he said that Netanyahu had made it clear that East Jerusalem was part of Israel and that he wouldn't limit construction in the city.

Mitchell has been trying to revive Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, including discussions with Israel of a settlement freeze.

While there's been little official word about these negotiations, they've focused on issues such as the length of a settlement freeze and whether it includes "settlement blocs," areas inhabited by large numbers of settlers.

Officials in the previous Israeli government said the George W. Bush administration had agreed to continued construction in these blocs. Israel also has demanded that existing settlements be allowed to expand to account for natural population growth.

According to the aide to Netanyahu, the negotiations have progressed. "We're getting close," he said. He also said that Netanyahu had mentioned the need to allow normal life in the settlements to continue, which has been interpreted as code for continuing construction to accommodate what Israel calls "natural" population growth.

The negotiations include Obama's call for Arab countries to make goodwill gestures to Israel, such as granting Israeli airlines permission to fly over Arab nations. Qatar and Oman in the Persian Gulf reportedly have agreed to formal ties with Israel if it implements a settlement freeze.

According to the Netanyahu aide, the steps the Arab world is willing to take would affect Israel's actions in the West Bank. "There is no question that the more the Arab world shows that it is willing to take steps, the more flexibility Israel would be able to show on these issues," he said.

According to another senior Israeli official, Netanyahu's move is a message to Arab countries that Israel expects reciprocation for a settlement freeze: "My assumption is that it is a tactical move in the indirect negotiations with Arab governments, saying, 'I'm going to freeze, but if we don't get full satisfaction we have plans that are already approved.' "

The same official, who also asked not to be identified because of a lack of authority to speak publicly, noted that this move also could be aimed at internal Israeli opposition to a freeze, saying, "It can also be used to shut down home opposition."