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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Netanyahu defies Obama's demands over East Jerusalem |
| 2010-04-23 |
| Mr Netanyahu is said to have written to Barack Obama over the weekend officially rejecting his demand to freeze settlement expansion in the city -- a move that takes relations between Israel and its superpower patron into uncharted territory. Figured out that no foreign leader has yet paid for defying Bambi, has he ... The Israeli prime minister's response came nearly a month after a tempestuous meeting at the White House in which he was instructed to make a series of confidence-building measures towards the Palestinian leadership. Mr Netanyahu has equivocated as he tried to balance the demands of his coalition's right-wing, which urged him to make no compromises, against the intense pressure of the US president. Although he offered to make some concessions, such as releasing a number of Palestinian prisoners, Mr Netanyahu held firm on the issue of East Jerusalem, which Israel captured and annexed after the Six-Day War of 1967. Israeli officials, however, denied that their prime minister had made any formal reply to Mr Obama's demands. "The idea that there was some formal response is just not true," one said. Mr Netanyahu has made his feelings on East Jerusalem clear in recent days. Stopping construction in the city's Jewish settlements is "totally, totally a non-starter", he told the US television network ABC on Sunday. Israeli officials have been at pains to insist that Mr Netanyahu's refusal to rein in settlement expansion is a response to calls for a construction freeze from the Palestinian leadership rather than defiance of Mr Obama. But with US and Palestinian policies on East Jerusalem seemingly indivisible, the Israeli right yesterday interpreted Mr Netanyahu's position as their victory |
| Posted by:lotp |
| #2 Agreed, that's what the term should be. But given the arrogant assumption of control by this administration, perhaps 'denies' fits after all. |
| Posted by: lotp 2010-04-23 19:48 |
| #1 The proper term is "rejects". |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2010-04-23 06:33 |