US-Israeli tensions remain as Obama and Netanyahu meet
The frosty relations between the US and Israel failed to thaw as Barack Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu met at the White House.

by Elizabeth Davies, inthenews.co.uk
March 24, 2010

President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu met again last night at the White House
 

The frosty relations between the United States and Israel failed to thaw yesterday as Barack Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu met at the White House.

The previously unscheduled meeting was also an unconventional one, with the US president and Israeli prime minister foregoing the usual ritual of posing in front of cameras together or hosting a joint press conference.

Tensions have increased in recent weeks as the Israeli government announced plans to expand Jewish settlements in the eastern Jerusalem neighbourhood of Rabat Shlomo. The move was seen as a deliberate snub to the United States, since the declaration came as vice president Joseph Biden was visiting the country to try to kick-start peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians.

East Jerusalem was annexed by the Israelis following the 1967 six-day war. Today the Jerusalem municipality announced that 20 new apartments for Jewish settlers had been approved in the area, with the construction funded by wealthy American Irving Moskowitz.

The Palestinians would like East Jerusalem to be their capital in any future two-state solution. The United States had previously insisted that a freeze on Israeli settlement-building was a precondition to re-starting peace talks, but were forced to back down in the face of Israeli opposition.

Mr Netanyahu appeared to challenge the Obama administration again on Monday in a strong speech to Washington's pro-Israel lobby group, AIPAC. He refused to compromise on Jewish construction in East Jerusalem, announcing firmly that "Jerusalem is not a settlement; it's our capital" and that these new settlements were "an integral and inextricable part of modern Jerusalem".

The United States government has itself been using AIPAC's annual conference to set out its Middle East agenda. The secretary of state Hillary Clinton affirmed on Monday that "our commitment to Israel's security and Israel's future is rock solid". However, she explicitly separated support of Israel as a country from support of its government's policies. "As Israel's friend," she added, "it is our responsibility to give credit when it is due and to tell the truth when it is needed."

Increasing public disapproval of Israeli policy from the Obama administration comes alongside growing criticism of the country in the UK. Yesterday, the foreign secretary David Miliband announced that Britain had expelled an Israeli diplomat over the forgery of British passports used in the assassination of a Hamas leader in Dubai.