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Netanyahu defies Obama call for settlement freeze
Mon Jun 1, 2009 9:21pm EDT
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By Jeffrey Heller and Adam Entous
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, defying President Barack Obama's call for a settlement freeze, said on Monday Israel would continue to build in existing Jewish enclaves in occupied territory.
"Freezing life would not be reasonable," Netanyahu told lawmakers.
But in an apparent gesture to Obama, who has sought to revive stalled peace talks and plans to address Muslims from Egypt on Thursday, Israeli officials said Netanyahu might ease Israel's crippling blockade of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
In Washington, Obama said he believed a full settlement freeze was part of the steps both Israel and Palestinians have to take to achieve peace.
"I've said very clearly to the Israelis both privately and publicly that a freeze on settlements, including natural growth, is part of those obligations," Obama told NPR News.
"I've said to the Palestinians that their continued progress on security and ending the incitement that, I think, understandably makes the Israelis so concerned, that ... those obligations have to be met," Obama said.
In a mark of passions mounting in the West Bank, Jewish settlers, enraged at troops' removal of a hilltop outpost, set fire to Palestinian fields and pelted motorists with rocks.
Netanyahu's pleas that settlement cannot be fully halted seem to be landing on stony ground in Washington under a new administration keen for Arab support. Diplomats say a range of possible measures are being reviewed by the United States and European Union to put pressure on their Israeli ally.
Talk of such sanctions prompted one senior Israeli official to complain: "The Netanyahu government is acting the same as its predecessors. The one who has changed policy is the American administration. The new administration is trying to get out of understandings achieved under the Bush administration."
Obama, who has promised to reengage in peace diplomacy after relatively detached approach under his predecessor George W. Bush, seemed to nudge Netanyahu again on Monday.
Asked about the Muslim world's perception that Washington is biased in favor of Israel, Obama told NPR the United States has a "special relationship" with the Jewish state, which he called a "stalwart ally."
But he added, "There have been times where we are not as honest as we should be (with Israel) about the fact that the current direction, the current trajectory in the region is profoundly negative, not only for Israeli interests but for American interests. And that's part of a new dialogue that I'd like to see encouraged ..."
Speaking to a parliamentary committee on Monday, Netanyahu called for "reason and logic" in dealing with settlements in the West Bank, territory Israel captured in a 1967 war.
Obama, in office for just over four months to Netanyahu's two, has called for a full settlement freeze under a 2003 peace "road map." His secretary of state Hillary Clinton said that included halting building in existing settlements.
Obama said talks between the United States and Israel on the issue were still in the early stages and he expected the two sides to have "a series of conversations." Continued...
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