Obama: ‘No crisis’ in U.S. ties with Israel: Haaretz
United States President Barack Obama said Thursday that there was ‘no crisis’ in ties with Israel, despite a high-profile diplomatic feud between the allies over the Netanyahu administration’s plans to build Jewish homes in east Jerusalem.
“Israel’s one of our closest allies, and we and the Israeli people have a special bond that’s not going to go away,” Obama said in an interview on Fox News Channel’s Special Report with Bret Baier.
“But friends are going to disagree sometimes,” Obama said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday called the timing of the decision to build 1,600 Jewish homes in the Jerusalem neighborhood Ramat Shlomo, announced during a visit last week to Israel by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, “bureaucratic mishap”.
“This neighborhood is located five minutes from the prime minister’s office,” Netanyahu told Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, in Jerusalem as part of her first official trip to the Middle East.
According to Netanyahu, because it is considered a Jewish neighborhood, the Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee which approved the project did not consider it a controversial subject.
Netanyahu met with seven senior ministers late Wednesday to discuss possible Israeli responses to U.S. demands regarding the contentious East Jerusalem building project.
A government source said Wednesday that it was possible that the forum of seven would not complete its deliberations tonight, and may continue on Thursday.
During the meeting, Defense Minister Ehud Barak spoke by telephone with George Mitchell, the United States peace envoy to the Middle East, Haaretz learned.
Mitchell had on Tuesday canceled a planned visit to Israel but told Barak that he was now considering arriving in the country on Sunday.
Earlier in the week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Netanyahu that the U.S. demanded the cancellation of the Ramat Shlomo construction project.
On Wednesday, State Department Spokesman Philip Crowley said that the U.S. was “still looking forward to a response; there has been no call; we’re in the same place as we were yesterday.”
Earlier Wednesday, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said that the demands made by the U.S. and other world powers regarding the cessation of Israel’s building projects in East Jerusalem were unreasonable, adding that he felt preventing Jews from buying lands anywhere in the capital is a form of discrimination.
Lieberman, speaking at a joint press conference with Catherine Ashton in Jerusalem, said that the demand represented, “to a large extent, an opportunity to attack Israel and pressure Israel into doing unreasonable things.”
“The demand to forbid Jews to buy or build in East Jerusalem is unreasonable. Let’s consider what would happen if we would ban the Arab residents of the city to buy in west Jerusalem,” Lieberman asked, adding that he had asked “all of the leaders who I have spoken with recently that question.”
“Some said that we would then be an apartheid state, but that’s an unacceptable asymmetry,” the foreign minister said. Lieberman told Ashton that “Jerusalem is Israel’s capital and must be accessible to members of all faiths,” adding that “anyone may buy and build wherever he likes.”
“There are thousands of East Jerusalem Arabs who live in the Jewish neighborhood in the west and that will continue,” Lieberman said.
The foreign minister reiterated that the timing of the approval’s announcement during Biden’s visit was off, and that Israel had “no reason to confront the United States or the European Union.”
“We are trying to clarify our stance through the proper channels, to explain what’s happening and I hope we will reach and understanding,” the FM said, adding that he suggested against turning recent tensions to “an overall confrontation that would contribute nothing positive to the diplomatic process, won’t bring the sides together or make it easier on them.”
The FM said during the press conference that she had arrived in Israel to make sure that peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians were getting started and that direct talks were initiated geared at ending the conflict.
“I’m here to support bilateral relations with Israel,” Ashton said.
Lieberman also commented on talks with the Palestinians, asserting that “all of Israel wants peace. The only discussion is on what’s the best way to achieve that peace.”
Earlier Wednesday, President Shimon Peres called the United States “a true friend” and said that both Israel and the U.S. want to ease the recent tensions between the two nations.
“We have deep respect for [U.S.] parliamentary and executive institutions, led by President Obama,” Peres told a group of high school students in Holon. “We want these relations and are interested in returning them to their regular, positive state.”
Speaking about indirect talks with the Palestinians, Peres said such talks, while not ideal, are better than nothing.
“In my opinion, proximity talks can open the path to renewing the peace negotiations,” he said. “I can say, on this stage, to our Palestinian neighbors and to whoever is listening – Israel has already made a historic decision to establish two states for two peoples. An Arabic state named Palestine and a Jewish state named Israel. I do not believe or think it possible that there is any other solution.”
Netanyahu and U.S. Vice President Joe Biden spoke on the phone Tuesday night in a bid to reduce recent friction between the U.S.
The New York Times also said that the American administration had confirmed the conversation. The Prime Minister’s Bureau did not elaborate on the details of the conversation, which lasted until 2 A.M. Netanyahu’s advisers Yitzhak Molcho and Ron Dermer, along with Israeli envoy to the U.S. Michael Oren, were also present.
Netanyahu’s brother-in-law calls Obama ‘anti-Semitic’: BBC
Mr Ben-Artzi said his brother-in-law should learn from previous PMs
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has distanced himself from his brother-in-law’s description of US President Barack Obama as anti-Semitic.
He said he “strenuously” objected to Hagai Ben-Artzi’s comment and expressed his “deep appreciation” for Mr Obama’s commitment to Israel’s security.
Mr Ben-Artzi was responding to US criticism of Israeli approval of plans for 1,600 new homes in East Jerusalem.
Later, Mr Obama said the decision had not been helpful to the peace process.
But despite the disagreement, he told Fox News that there was no crisis in US-Israeli relations and that the two countries had a special bond that was not going to go away.
“Friends are going to disagree sometimes,” he added.
On Sunday, a top aide to Mr Obama called Israel’s announcement “calculated”, “destructive” to peace efforts and an “insult” to the US.
Both sides had just agreed to hold indirect “proximity talks” to revive the peace process, which has been stalled for more than a year.
‘Difficult situation’
In an interview with Israel Army Radio, Mr Ben-Artzi said his brother-in-law should learn from previous Israeli prime ministers.
“Once the Americans tried to intervene in anything related to Jerusalem we told them one simple word: ‘No’,” he explained.
As a politician running for presidency he had to hide it, but it comes out every time and I think we just have to say it plainly – there is an anti-Semitic president in America
Hagai Ben-Artzi
Mr Obama, he added, not only disliked Mr Netanyahu personally, but “dislikes the people of Israel”.
“For 20 years, Obama sat with Reverend Jeremiah Wright, who is anti-Semitic, anti-Israeli, and anti-Jewish.”
He said it was clear Mr Obama agreed with Rev Wright because he had remained a member of his congregation.
“Think about it. If you had heard of someone who for 20 years sat in church and heard anti-Semitic sermons and didn’t get up to leave after two weeks, wouldn’t you think he identifies with it?” he asked.
“As a politician running for presidency he had to hide it, but it comes out every time and I think we just have to say it plainly – there is an anti-Semitic president in America,” he said.
“Unfortunately this creates a difficult situation for Israel, but we will never give up our deepest interests – Jerusalem and our ties with it.”
Mr Obama broke with Rev Wright’s Trinity United Church of Christ in 2008
Mr Obama broke with the Trinity United Church of Christ in 2008 after some of Rev Wright’s controversial sermons emerged on the internet. In one, he said the 9/11 attacks were an example of “America’s chickens coming home to roost”.
“I have a deep appreciation for President Obama’s commitment to Israel’s security, which he has expressed many times,” Mr Netanyahu said in a statement afterwards.
But despite the rebuke from his sister’s husband, Mr Ben-Artzi repeated his criticism of Mr Obama in a later interview with Israel’s Channel 2 television.
The Palestinian Authority has refused to resume direct talks with Israel because of its refusal to put a stop to the expansion of settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
In November, Israel announced a 10-month suspension of new building in the West Bank, under heavy US pressure. But it considers areas within the Jerusalem municipality as its territory and thus not subject to the restrictions.
Close to 500,000 Jews live in more than 100 settlements built since Israel’s 1967 occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. They are illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this.