Reply #3: No, not exactly. [View All]

[Jefferson23]

Obama offered Netanyahu a gentlemen's agreement on Jerusalem



snip* When on Wednesday a senior U.S. official told the Wall Street Journal that Netanyahu had unequivocally rejected U.S. demands for a freeze in East Jerusalem, he conveniently provided the prime minister with a thick smokescreen to hide behind.

The alacrity with which the government confirmed such a 'damaging' report attests this - and we can now presume the crisis is over. As long as Jews aren't building in Sheikh Jarrakh or Ramat Shlomo, America couldn't care less was Israel says or doesn't say over a Jerusalem construction freeze.

Washington understands that Netanyahu can't afford to admit, not even obliquely, that he is treating Jerusalem like the West Bank settlements, where building has been banned until September. As far as the America's is concerned, Netanyahu can run and tell his friends that what goes for Tel Aviv goes for Jerusalem - as long Obama officials don't wake the next morning to newspaper reports that Israel has approved a new building program in the Holy City.

What Obama has demanded from Netanyahu is in essence a 'gentlemen's agreement' that Israel will not launch new building tenders in East Jerusalem as long as proximity talks with the Palestinians continue. Obama needs this commitment in order to convince Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that that he is not playing into the hands of Hamas.


http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1164679.html