Israel rejects US call over settlement work

Source: BBC News

Israel will continue to allow some construction in West Bank settlements despite US calls for a freeze on its work, a government spokesman says.

Mark Regev said the fate of the settlements should be decided in peace negotiations with the Palestinians.

His remarks appear to be a rebuff to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who said all such activity should cease.

Her comments came hours before Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was due to meet US President Barack Obama.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8071491.stm

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Source: Associated Press

Israel rebuffs U.S. call for total settlement freeze
Posted 1h 45m ago

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel defied a surprisingly blunt U.S. demand that it freeze all building in West Bank Jewish settlements, saying Thursday it will press ahead with construction.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday that President Obama wants Israel to halt to all settlement construction — including "natural growth." She was referring to Israel's insistence that new construction is necessary to accommodate the expansion of families already living in existing settlements.

Government spokesman Mark Regev responded by saying "normal life in those communities must be allowed to continue." He confirmed that this meant some construction will continue in existing settlements.

The new conflict with Washington came on the same day Obama was to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the White House. Abbas has said the Palestinian demand for freezing settlements will be at the top of his agenda in the talks.



Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2009-05-28-israel-settlements_N.htm?csp=34

Until you stop sending them aid to build the illegal settlements in the first place.

our unnatural financial aid to the ever-metastasizing Israeli government.

Oops, is it the end of the month already? Time for another shipment of cash to our good friends the Israelis! Because stopping the money would be economic blackmail or something.

Israel does what Israel wants. Who's going to stop them? Nobody.

Source: Associated Press

Israel will press ahead with housing construction in its West Bank settlements despite a surprisingly blunt demand from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton that all such building stop, an Israeli official said Thursday.

The Israeli position could set the stage for a showdown with the U.S. on the day President Barack Obama meets his Palestinian counterpart, Mahmoud Abbas, at the White House. Abbas has said the freeze of the Israeli settlements will top his agenda in the talks.

--snip--

Clinton said Obama told Netanyahu last week when the two met at the White House that the U.S. sees stopping settlements as key to a peace deal that would see a Palestinian state created alongside Israel.

"He wants to see a stop to settlements — not some settlements, not outposts, not 'natural growth' exceptions," Clinton said. "We think it is in the best interests (of the peace process) that settlement expansion cease. That is our position. That is what we have communicated very clearly. ... And we intend to press that point."

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ioi_0jtO9RjMwPNRoXNCndRPRq3gD98F99I02

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Interesting article covering the complexities involved in this U.S. foreign policy initiative. The excerpts do not do the article justice.

president, probuably what i would do as well.

.
.
.

let's see, just off the top of my head

Iraq/Saddam - then they tore his country apart

Afghanistan/taliban/mujaheeden - then they tear Afghanistan apart

Pakistan, now they are encroaching Pakistan from the Afghanistan border

and so on . . .

Israel, with it's nukes and sophisticated military is giving the USA the big finger

FUCK YOU !!!

But thanks for the nukes . . . :thumbsup:

now just go away . . .

THAT worked well!

If the Likud government defies it, there will have to be consequences, sufficient to alter behavior....

Source: The Independent (UK)

Israel rejects US plea to halt settlement building

'Natural growth' will continue, says official

By Rupert Cornwell in Washington

Friday, 29 May 2009

President Barack Obama last night stepped up the pressure on Israel by declaring that the Jewish state must "stop" its settlements, even after it had rejected a demand from Hillary Clinton, the Secretary of State, for a comprehensive settlements freeze.

Speaking after an Oval Office meeting with the Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, Mr Obama said Israel had an obligation of halting the settlement programme, which both he and Mr Abbas say is an essential pre-condition for a meaningful resumption of talks about a Middle East peace agreement.

But the already slim prospects of a breakthrough were dealt a severe new blow yesterday as Israel bluntly rejected the call, only hours before yesterday's White House meeting. Speaking in Jerusalem, Mark Regev, the Israeli government spokesman, said the internal or so-called "natural growth" of settlements would continue, and their fate would only be decided as part of the final negotiations for an overall peace agreement.

Israel's stance is fresh evidence of the tensions between the new administration in Washington and the government of the hard-line Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is not only reluctant to rein back settlements but who refused to endorse even the concept of a two-state solution that had been embraced by his most recent predecessors. Mr Obama nonetheless reiterated his belief that Israel would come to realise such an arrangement was in its national interest.

The Israeli reaction will also dampen hopes surrounding the major speech Mr Obama is due to deliver in Cairo next week to the Arab and Islamic world. Although White House officials say the address will not set out a detailed new blueprint for Middle East peace, it cannot but touch upon a conflict that has defied solution for more than 60 years.



Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israel-rejects-us-plea-to-halt-settlement-building-1692573.html

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Yesterday's LBN thread on Obama's demands for Israel to stop settlement construction and expansion:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3897366&mesg_id=3897366

The Likud-led coalition government of Israel rejects the 2-state solution.

Opposition party Kadima, and most of Labour, supports a 2-state solution.

time to call the bluff.

Reply ## 26 and 35 at http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3897366 say it all.