Netanyahu stands firm on Jerusalem before U.S. visit
JERUSALEM (Reuters) Sun Mar 21, 2010 9:35am EDT-
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he had informed Washington in writing that Israel would not stop Jewish settlement in and around Jerusalem, setting the stage for a defiant visit to the United States this week.
The tinderbox settlement issue, accompanied by mounting violence in the West Bank where four Palestinians have been killed in the past two days, is challenging renewed efforts by a U.S. envoy to get indirect peace talks under way.
"Our policy on Jerusalem is the same policy followed by all Israeli governments for the 42 years, and it has not changed. As far as we are concerned, building in Jerusalem is the same as building in Tel Aviv," Netanyahu told his cabinet on Sunday.
"I believed it would be of great importance for these things not to remain in the context of commentary or speculation. I subsequently wrote a letter, at my own initiative, to the secretary of state so that things would be crystal clear."
Hillary Clinton and Netanyahu spoke by telephone on Thursday in an attempt to defuse a vocal U.S.-Israeli dispute over settlement in areas around East Jerusalem, captured by Israel captured in a 1967 war.
Israel's announcement -- during a visit by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden two weeks ago -- that it would build 1,600 homes for Jews near East Jerusalem embarrassed Washington and delayed the start of indirect peace talks with the Palestinians.
But in a softening of Washington's tone in the worst public spat with Israel since U.S. President Barack Obama came to office early last year, Clinton said last week that Netanyahu had given a "useful and productive" response to her concerns.
She gave no details. Israel media said Clinton failed to persuade Netanyahu to shelve the new housing project but that he agreed to several confidence-building steps such as freeing Palestinian prisoners and easing a Gaza blockade.
Netanyahu was to fly to the United States later on Sunday after talks with U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell on restarting peace talks that have been suspended since December 2008.
He planned to address the pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC on Monday. U.N. Secretary General Ban ki-Moon, on a visit to Gaza, said Netanyahu would also meet President Barack Obama, but there was no confirmation of that from Israel or the United States.
In the latest West Bank bloodshed, Israeli troops killed two Palestinians who tried to stab soldiers, the army said.
On Saturday, soldiers shot two Palestinian teenagers during a stone-throwing protest against Israeli settlement policy that Palestinians say will deny them a viable state. One was killed immediately and the other youth died of his wounds on Sunday.
Palestinians stuck publicly to their refusal to negotiate until Israel froze settlement building.
Israel's action "thwarts efforts by the Quartet (of international peace mediators) and the U.S. administration to return to the peace process," said Nabil Abu Rdainah, an aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
ISSUES
Israel regards all of Jerusalem as its capital, a claim that is not recognized internationally. The Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of the state they want to establish in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
In his remarks at the weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu appeared to give Mitchell an opening in dealing with a Palestinian demand to negotiate core issues, such as borders and the future of Jerusalem," during indirect peace talks.
Netanyahu reaffirmed that each side was free to put forward its positions on all issues in dispute, but he said pointedly that "a real solution to the core problems ... can be reached only in direct peace negotiations."
Netanyahu had apologized to Washington for the timing of the announcement of the construction plans for the settlement of Ramat Shlomo, built on West Bank land that Israel annexed to Jerusalem in 1967.
But he told parliament last week there was a national consensus to build in "Jerusalem neighborhoods," Jewish apartment blocs in disputed areas under Israeli control.
"I believe that Israel's position is very clear. It will be clear during my visit to the U.S. capital, Netanyahu told his cabinet, which is comprised mainly of pro-settler parties, including his own.
At a meeting in Moscow on Friday, the Quartet -- the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia -- called on Israel to halt all settlement building.
Israel has refused to do so, citing biblical and historical links to the West Bank and saying it intends to keep major settlement blocs in any future peace agreement.
Under U.S. and international pressure, Netanyahu announced a 10-month moratorium on new housing starts in Jewish settlements in November. But he excluded East Jerusalem and nearby annexed areas of the West Bank from the temporary building freeze, leading Palestinians to call it insufficient.
(Editing by Noah Barkin)
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