Posted on 03/15/2010 9:30:48 AM PDT by lbryce
Israeli media reported Monday that the U.S. is pressing Israel to scrap a contentious east Jerusalem building project whose approval has touched off the most serious diplomatic feud with Washington in years.
Top U.S. officials have lined up in recent days to condemn the Israeli plan to build 1,600 apartments in east Jerusalem, the sector of the holy city that the Palestinians claim for their future capital.
The project caused a storm in Washington because it was announced during Vice President Joe Biden's visit to the region last week, badly embarrassing the U.S. and complicating its efforts to restart Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking. The Palestinians immediately threatened not to join upcoming U.S.-brokered talks meant to jumpstart negotiations after a 14-month breakdown.
U.S. officials have not disclosed what steps they want Israel to take to ease the crisis, and Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev refused to comment Monday. But Israeli newspapers and radio stations said Washington wants the construction project canceled.
They also reported that the U.S. wants Israel to make a significant confidence-building gesture toward the Palestinians. Suggestions included releasing hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails; turning over additional areas of the West Bank to Palestinian control; removing some of the roadblocks hampering the movement of Palestinians and goods in the West Bank; and easing the blockade on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, media reported.
Washington, they added, also has demanded that Israel officially declare that talks with the Palestinians will deal with all the conflict's big issues, including final borders, the status of Jerusalem, and the fate of Palestinian refugees who fled or were driven from their homes during the war that followed Israel's 1948 creation.
(Excerpt) Read more at google.com ...
I guess the Times said something mean about Obama page 24, Section D and needed to make up for it.
The Slimes has always had a anti-Israel slant, part of the reason so many NY JIFO’s (Jews in Food Only) are liberals.
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