Hillary Clinton and Israel

[Scurrilous]

<snip>

"Not since George H.W. Bush tried to stop Israeli settlement activity has an American president openly confronted Israel. Now Barack Obama, first through vice-president Joe Biden, then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is admonishing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about expanding settlements. Just as he has begun to make the case publicly for health care, so Obama is now starting to demand progress in the Middle East.

Obama, in other words,is going for broke. He has not given up on his insistence upon an Israeli-Palestinian peace. Instead, he's doubling down, much as he did in Afghanistan. Anyone who thinks that Obama lacks boldness should think twice.

The blunt fact is that this is no sudden outburst of anger, but a simmering fury on Obama's part. Obama's calls for negotiations have gone nowhere over the past year. Biden's humiliation was apparently the last straw. By flaunting its contempt for the administration, the Israeli government may have miscalculated.

Obama clearly believes that he has the political capital to lecture Israel, which is what makes the current standoff so fascinating. Obama is apparently calculating that the surge in Afghanistan, among other things, buys him enough political cover to push Israel to treat with the Palestinian leadership. Obama also appears to have a united foreign policy team. Biden, who is staunchly pro-Israel, was blindsided by the announcement of expanded settlements almost as soon as he touched down in Israel this week. The result has been an opening for Clinton, who lectured Netanyahu today. The message is clear: Israel is jeopardizing its special relationship with America."

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Report: U.S. vows to halt Israeli building in East Jerusalem

<snip>

"U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell promised Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas that the U.S. will bring a halt to Israeli building in East Jerusalem, a Palestinian official told the newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi on Saturday.

"In a telephone conversation, Mitchell said the U.S. would make sure Israel stops building in the area," the Palestinian official told the London-based Arabic daily newspaper.

The U.S. has recently expressed frustration over Israel's announcement on Tuesday of new settlement construction, a move that deeply embarrassed visiting U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and imperiled U.S. plans to launch indirect negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

In an interview with CNN aired Friday night, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Israel's announcement of new construction of homes in a Jewish neighborhood in East Jerusalem was "insulting" to the United States.

"I mean, it was just really a very unfortunate and difficult moment for everyone - the United States, our vice president who had gone to reassert our strong support for Israeli security - and I regret deeply that that occurred and made that known," Clinton said during the CNN interview."

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[Scurrilous]

1. Obama tells Netanyahu: Show us you're serious about peace

<snip>

"A widely predicted crisis between Israel and the United States upon Benjamin Netanyahu taking office as prime minister finally erupted this weekend.

U.S. President Barack Obama did not hold back in condemning the humiliation caused to Joe Biden with the Israeli announcement of 1,600 new housing units in East Jerusalem during what was supposed to be the vice president's friendly visit to Israel.

Instead of accepting Netanyahu's partial apology and letting bygones be bygones, Obama issued a stern warning to the Israeli prime minister and is now demanding that he take "specific actions" to show he is "committed" to the U.S.-Israel relationship and to the peace process itself.

Washington did not reveal the contents of the ultimatum or the list of demands reportedly presented to Netanyahu. Those conditions, however, could undermine the prime minister's coalition ties to hard-line right-wing parties like Yisrael Beiteinu and Shas, as well as provoke strong criticism from within his own Likud faction. In case Netanyahu still fails to understand the situation, a U.S. official told Reuters yesterday that the Israeli leader's rightist coalition leaves him in a "perilous" situation."

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Ambassador Oren reprimanded

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3862111,00.html

Israel's envoy to US summoned for meeting at State Department, reprimanded over Israel's announcement of east Jerusalem construction; meanwhile, PM Netanyahu orders establishment of committee to prevent such mishaps in future

<snip>

"The US State Department summoned Israel's Ambassador in Washington Michael Oren for a meeting Friday where he was reprimanded by a US official.

The meeting was called in the wake of Israel's plan to construct 1,600 new housing units in east Jerusalem, which was announced during US Vice President Joe Biden's visit to Israel.

During the meeting, Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg harshly criticized Israel's conduct and called for trust-building steps that would allow US special envoy George Mitchell to return to the region and commence talks with the Palestinians.

Meanwhile, officials in Washington have admitted that the latest row between Israel and the US, over the Jerusalem construction plans, amounts to a crisis.

As intense contacts with Washington continue, senior Israeli officials estimated that the crisis holds "strategic significance" and is being fanned by senior US officials and by the fury of President Barack Obama himself.

In conversations with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel earlier, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he expected the latest row to end following an apology he issued, in coordination with VP Biden himself.

However, it appeared the PM has underestimated the extent of the disagreement with the US Administration."

[The Magistrate]

2. Our Government, Sir, Had Best Continue On This Course

You cannot back down from a thing like this, once it is begun....