Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected U.S. and Palestinian criticism of Israeli plans to build more homes in east Jerusalem, saying Israel has never accepted “any limitations” on construction in what it regards as its capital city.
“Jerusalem is not a settlement,” Netanyahu said, according to a text message sent from his office yesterday. “Jerusalem is the capital of the state of Israel. Israel never took upon itself any limitations on construction in Jerusalem.”
Netanyahu’s statement came after President Barack Obama said Israeli plans to build more than 1,000 new homes in east Jerusalem aren’t helpful to the Middle East peace process. Similar construction plans announced during a March visit to Israel by Vice President Joe Biden strained ties between Israel and its staunchest ally.
Netanyahu is in the U.S. this week to discuss reviving direct talks with the Palestinians that started Sept. 2 in Washington and stalled on Sept. 26 when Israel ended a partial 10-month freeze on settlement construction in the West Bank. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has said he won’t continue the talks unless Israel stops settlement building.
“This kind of activity is never helpful when it comes to peace negotiations,” Obama said yesterday at a news conference in Jakarta with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. “I’m concerned that we’re not seeing each side make the extra effort involved to get a breakthrough that could finally create a framework for a secure Israel living side by side in peace with a sovereign Palestine.”
Annexation
Israel captured east Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East war and later annexed it in a move never recognized internationally.
Building in Jerusalem “may derail the American and international efforts to resume a peace process,” Palestinian Authority spokesman Ghassan Khatib said. “Israel is determined to demonstrate that settlement expansion is more of a priority to it than peace talks.”
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today announced $150 million in U.S. aid to help the Palestinian Authority pare its debt. She made the announcement in a video conference with Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.
‘Way Overblown’
Netanyahu is scheduled to hold talks with Clinton in New York tomorrow before he returns to Israel. In his statement yesterday, the premier said that such differences with the U.S. are “not new and have continued for 40 years.”
In an interview with Bloomberg Television in New York yesterday, Netanyahu called Palestinian complaints about Israeli settlement construction “way overblown.” He said previous settlement construction hadn’t prevented Egypt or Jordan from concluding peace agreements with Israel.
“In many ways it’s a minor issue that has assumed center stage for no objective reason,” Netanyahu said in the interview.
Netanyahu spokesman Nir Hefez told Israel’s Army Radio this morning that the decision on Jerusalem homes was taken on Oct. 20 and has been published by developers in local media. “There is nothing the government has done in this matter, and neither has the municipality done anything in recent days,” he said.
In the interview, Netanyahu also called Iran’s nuclear program a risk to the entire world and said stopping it requires persuading the regime in Tehran that “all options are on the table.”
Nuclear Sanctions
Netanyahu has pushed the U.S. and other countries to strengthen sanctions against Iran to stop it from producing nuclear weapons, and said on Nov. 8 that sanctions haven’t accomplished that goal. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has described the Holocaust as a fabrication and has said Israel is doomed to disappear.
“I think there’s a common desire and common understanding that Iran should not get nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu said yesterday. “If Iran is as determined as it is to get such weapons, then the combination of economic sanctions and the knowledge that all options are on the table is the only option that is likely to deter them.”
Iran, which says its nuclear installations are aimed at producing energy, is under a fourth round of United Nations sanctions because it refuses to curtail its nuclear program.
Biden, speaking to a convention of Jewish groups in New Orleans on Nov. 7 after meeting with Netanyahu, said he told the Israeli leader that Obama won’t allow Iran to build a nuclear arsenal.
Crowley said yesterday that Iran has agreed to hold talks on its nuclear program with the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany. The U.S. hopes the meeting “might occur as early as the end of the month,” he said.
Turkish President Abdullah Gul said in an interview with Bloomberg TV in London yesterday that Turkey expects to host the negotiations.
To contact the reporters on this story: Gwen Ackerman in Jerusalem at gackerman@bloomberg.net; Jonathan Ferziger in New York at jferziger@bloomberg.net; Christopher Power in New York at cpower3@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Peter Hirschberg at phirschberg@bloomberg.net.
