Associated Press (via Haaretz) 12 Mar 2010 Israel 'expected to take action' to revive peace talks, U.S. Secretary of State tells prime minister in phone call. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to complain bluntly about Israel's announcement this week of new housing units in east Jerusalem, a senior U.S. official said on Friday. The official said Clinton spoke with Netanyahu Friday to deliver a very strong message with regard to events over the past week. Israel is expected to take actions to improve the prospects for relaunching peace talks with the Palestinians, she said.
Associated Press (via Haaretz) 12 Mar 2010
Israel 'expected to take action' to revive peace talks, U.S. Secretary of State tells prime minister in phone call.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to complain bluntly about Israel's announcement this week of new housing units in east Jerusalem, a senior U.S. official said on Friday.
The official said Clinton spoke with Netanyahu Friday to deliver a very strong message with regard to events over the past week.
Israel is expected to take actions to improve the prospects for relaunching peace talks with the Palestinians, she said.
Will it make a difference?
(Reuters) - Israeli forces sealed off the West Bank and massed riot squads around Jerusalem's Old City and Arab neighborhoods during Muslim weekly prayers, facing down Palestinian anger over Jewish settlement expansion.
Israel barred Palestinians from crossing from the West Bank into Israel and Jerusalem, and barred men under 50 from al-Aqsa mosque, the flashpoint holy site in the walled Old City.
As hundreds of youths streamed away from noon prayers at a mosque in the district of Ras al-Amud, a Reuters journalist saw men hurl stones at a car carrying Orthodox Jewish children. One rock smashed a side window, but there were no obvious injuries.
Islamists in the blockaded Gaza Strip rallied supporters to protest at Israel's policies in Jerusalem, "We will redeem al-Aqsa mosque with our souls and our blood," the crowd chanted.
Clinton calls PM, slams Jerusalem plan
(Jerusalem Post) - The Israeli announcement enraged the Palestinians and Arab states, jeopardizing the proximity talks Mitchell is to mediate. An Arab League advisory committee has already withdrawn its endorsement of the discussions.
In a bid to salvage those negotiations, Mitchell and the top US diplomat for the Middle East, Jeffrey Feltman, called Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Arab League chief Amr Moussa and the foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates over the past two days.
● ME Quartet to meet in Moscow
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
So what's all this hallabaloo about plans for a few thousand homes in East Jerusalem? That's Likud, and it was Labor's view as well in the days of the 75% solution peacemaker who wasn't, Iztak Rabin.
