Well, world and Palestinians excluded, of course.
"Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.... brushed aside suggestions that US-Israeli relations are in crisis and reaffirmed America’s steadfast commitment.... Clinton also said US and Israeli officials are in intense talks about how to repair the damage... Clinton suggested the United States wanted to move beyond the feud"
Yeah, pass that salt shaker over. I'm going to need a lot of grains to get through this.
"US warns Israel on ‘negative signal’" by Washington Post | March 13, 2010
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel yesterday that Israel had sent a “deeply negative signal’’ about the US-Israeli relationship and urged him to take immediate steps to demonstrate that it was interested in renewing efforts at a Middle East peace agreement.
Yeah, whatever, Hitlery.
Clinton spoke to the Israeli leader by telephone. Her call, made in the wake of the embarrassment suffered by Vice President Joe Biden this week when Israel announced it would build 1,600 housing units in a disputed area of Jerusalem, was an unusually tough message for the longtime US ally. It came two days after Biden condemned the action that was announced while he was in Israel, and demonstrated that Netanyahu’s efforts to mollify the administration have fallen short....
Relations with Israel have been strained during the Obama administration, and Biden’s trip was intended as a fence-mending mission. Now it has led to the biggest crisis between the two countries in two decades....
What a bunch of BS!!!!
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And how there is always an ample supply of the stuff in my newspaper?
"Netanyahu seeks to defuse tensions over US-Israeli dispute; Urges calm after outcry over plans for new building" by Amy Teibel, Associated Press | March 15, 2010
JERUSALEM — Israel’s prime minister tried to play down a serious diplomatic dispute with the United States yesterday, urging calm after another stern rebuke from Washington over plans to build 1,600 new apartments for Jews in contested east Jerusalem....
Israel’s already strained relationship with the United States hit a new low last week when it announced the construction plans during a visit by Vice President Joe Biden. The timing of the announcement deeply embarrassed the Obama administration....
The United States responded with repeated condemnations, including a lecture from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton over the weekend. A senior White House official added another stinging rebuke yesterday.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has been trying to dispel the notion that relations with the United States have degenerated into a crisis. His attempt yesterday to ease concerns were his first public comments since the feud erupted.
“We opened the newspapers this morning and read all kinds of commentary and assumptions regarding the crisis with the US. I recommend not to get carried away and to calm down,’’ Netanyahu told his Cabinet. “There was a regrettable incident that was done in all innocence and was hurtful, and which certainly should not have occurred.’’
Netanyahu, however, gave no indication that he would cancel the east Jerusalem construction plan, despite warnings from Washington....
“Israel and the US have mutual interests,’’ Netanyahu told the Cabinet, pointedly adding, “but we will act according to the vital interests of the state of Israel.’’
Biden condemned the plan, using exceptionally harsh diplomatic language. But at the end of his visit Thursday, he toned down that criticism in an apparent effort to keep the feud from escalating.
Clinton shattered the newfound calm a day later....
Yeah, whatever you say, MSM.
"Israel feels rising anger of US over settlements; Netanyahu says there will be no compromise" by Mark Landler and Ethan Bronner, New York Times | March 16, 2010
Of course, the article is a complete reedit and rewrite.
I'm sick of the censorship games, folks.
WASHINGTON — An ill-timed municipal housing announcement in Jerusalem has mutated into one of the most serious conflicts between the United States and Israel in two decades, leaving a politically embarrassed Israeli government scrambling to respond to a tough list of demands by the Obama administration.
The White House has put Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a difficult political spot at home by insisting that the Israeli government halt a plan to build housing units in East Jerusalem. The administration also wants Netanyahu to commit to substantive negotiations with the Palestinians, after more than a year in which the peace process has been moribund.
With special envoy George J. Mitchell suddenly delaying his planned trip to Israel, the administration was expecting a call from Netanyahu, after a tense exchange last week with US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Yesterday, however, Netanyahu sounded a defiant note, telling the Israeli Parliament that construction of Jewish housing in Jerusalem was not a matter for negotiation.
He is struggling to balance an increasingly unhappy ally in Washington with the restive right wing of his coalition government.
The prospects for peace in the Middle East seemed murkier than ever, as a year’s worth of frustration on the part of President Obama and his aides seemed to boil over in its furious response to the housing announcement, which spoiled a visit to Israel by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.
“What happened to the vice president in Israel was unprecedented,’’ said a senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “Where it goes from here depends on the Israelis.’’
But the diplomatic standoff also has repercussions for the White House. Its blunt criticism of Israel — delivered publicly by Clinton in two television interviews on Friday and reiterated Sunday by Obama’s political advisor, David Axelrod — has set off a storm in Washington, with pro-Israel groups and several prominent lawmakers criticizing the administration for unfairly singling out a staunch American ally.
Yeah, an ALLY that SPIES on US!!
“Let’s cut the family fighting,’’ said Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut. “It’s unnecessary; it’s destructive of our shared national interest. It’s time to lower voices, to get over the family feud between the US and Israel. It just doesn’t serve anybody’s interests but our enemies.’’
I would expect him to say that, and we know where Joe's true loyalty lies.
Relations between Israel and the United States have been uneasy ever since Obama took office with a plan to rekindle the peace process by coupling a demand for a full freeze in Jewish settlement construction with reciprocal confidence-building gestures by Arab countries.
Neither happened, and Obama, who is not as popular in Israel as he is elsewhere around the world, was forced in September to make do with Netanyahu’s offer of a 10-month partial moratorium on settlements in the West Bank....
That tells you all you need to know about WHO is CALLING the SHOTS in the "special relationship."
The administration has used language designed to telegraph anger, defining the dispute not only in terms of the damage it could cause to the peace process but to the American relationship with Israel.
“That is a whole different order of magnitude of importance,’’ said Daniel Levy, a former peace negotiator who is senior fellow and head of the Middle East Initiative at the New America Foundation, a research group.
The last time relations between the United States and Israel became this strained, analysts said, was when James A. Baker, then secretary of state, clashed with the Israeli government in the early 1990s, also over settlement policy. The United States ended up withholding loan guarantees from Israel for a time....
There is a feeling among officials in Washington that the Netanyahu government does not fully grasp how angry Obama officials have grown. But there are signs that it is sinking in.Through the racial and genocidal thing Zionists call a head?
Yeah, right!
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"Palestinians take to streets in Jerusalem; Clash with Israelis over construction; US envoy cancels visit" by Amy Teibel, Associated Press | March 17, 2010
JERUSALEM —The diplomatic dispute was sparked by Israel’s announcement last week of plans for 1,600 apartments in East Jerusalem, which undercut a visit by Vice President Joe Biden aimed at bolstering peace talks. Palestinians claim that sector of the city for a future capital, while Israel claims all of the holy city as its eternal capital.
The announcement enraged Palestinians, who have threatened to bow out of US-brokered peace talks that were supposed to begin in the coming days. The Obama administration has angrily demanded that Israel call off the project.
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told Israel Radio yesterday that demands to halt construction “are unreasonable.’’ He predicted the row with the United States would blow over....
Hasn't it already?
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton brushed aside suggestions that US-Israeli relations are in crisis and reaffirmed America’s steadfast commitment to that nation’s security....
Clinton also said US and Israeli officials are in intense talks about how to repair the damage caused by Israel’s announcement....
Interior Minister Eli Yishai, in an interview with the Associated Press, also expressed regret over the dispute with Washington and said Israel was taking unspecified measures to defuse the situation. But an aide poked an AP reporter in the back when he asked about the contentious construction plan, and Yishai abruptly ended the interview....
What a F***ING COWARD!!!!
"Israel lifts extended closure of West Bank as tensions calm; No new clashes are reported in Jerusalem" by Amy Teibel, Associated Press | March 18, 2010
JERUSALEM — The recent violence has taken place against a backdrop of deep Palestinian frustration over a yearlong standstill in peace talks and dovetailed with the worst US-Israeli diplomatic feud in decades.
On Tuesday, the United States and Israel signaled they were trying to move beyond the crisis that erupted when Israel announced plans to build 1,600 apartments in disputed East Jerusalem during Vice President Joe Biden’s visit last week. Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke by phone Tuesday night, Israeli officials said.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, did not disclose the substance of the talk....
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JERUSALEM — With pressure increasing from global mediators yesterday, Israel and the Palestinians appeared likely to resume American-mediated indirect peace talks despite a flap over construction of Jewish homes in East Jerusalem.
What an absolute Zionist tool the PA has become.
Hopes for results remain dim. There’s scant expectation here that Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s hard-line prime minister, can reach a deal with the Palestinians that eluded his predecessors.
Meeting in Moscow yesterday, a group tagged the Quartet of Mideast peacemakers — the United States, Russia, European Union, and United Nations — called on Israel and the Palestinians to return to negotiations with a goal of reaching a peace deal that would create a Palestinian state within two years.
In a strongly worded statement read by the UN’s secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, the group reiterated its condemnation of Israeli construction in disputed East Jerusalem, promised to closely monitor developments there, and renewed its call for a halt of settlement activity.
But it did not escalate the feud over Israel’s plans, announced last week, to build 1,600 apartments in an East Jerusalem Jewish neighborhood. Speaking in Moscow, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton suggested the United States wanted to move beyond the feud and get indirect Israeli-Palestinian talks started.
The announcement of the construction, during a visit to Jerusalem last week by Vice President Joe Biden, angered Washington. Clinton criticized Netanyahu this week, demanding steps from Israel to get talks going. Clinton reportedly asked Israel to revoke its building decision, roll back plans for new Jewish homes, and make goodwill gestures such as releasing Palestinian prisoners and lifting some West Bank roadblocks.
Yesterday, after a telephone conversation with Netanyahu, she took a positive tone. “What I heard from the prime minister in response to the requests we made was useful and productive,’’ Clinton said....
Looks like I better get ready to clean up, huh?
Lot of MSM bulls*** around here.
The Quartet announcement was made ahead of a week of heavy diplomatic activity.
Ban is scheduled to arrive in the region today. US Mideast peace envoy George Mitchell returns tomorrow to meet Israeli and Palestinian leaders in hopes of getting the peace process restarted after a 15-month lull.
Netanyahu departs late tomorrow to Washington, where he would probably meet Biden and Clinton. A spokesman said Netanyahu suggested a series of confidence-building measures in his Thursday phone conversation with Clinton....
Yup, everything is back to normal!
"Israeli plans for settlements must stop, UN chief says; Palestinian teen killed in clash in West Bank" by Mohammed Daraghmeh, Associated Press | March 21, 2010
RAMALLAH, West Bank — The settlement announcement has sparked outrage and protests from Palestinians, as well as condemnation from Israel’s closest ally — the United States....
The announcement — which came during a visit by Vice President Joe Biden — prompted a major diplomatic row between Israel and the United States, though Clinton suggested Friday that a way could be found to renew negotiations. Clinton has asked Netanyahu for specific gestures, including canceling the most recent housing plan, and is to hear from the Israeli leader in a meeting in Washington this week.
Senior US officials in Washington say Netanyahu apparently has put in writing the pledges he made to Clinton during their telephone conversation Thursday.
Yeah, bulls***, and even if he did the promises are worth about as much as the paper they are written on.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to describe contents of a private diplomatic contact between Clinton and Netanyahu.
Who cares? I don't need to know Hitlery blew him.
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Bibi got a stiffie, too!!
"Netanyahu won’t bend on construction" by ASSOCIATED PRESS | March 22, 2010
JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared yesterday that Israel would not restrict construction in East Jerusalem, a step the United States has requested.
Netanyahu stuck to his position hours before he set off on his first trip to Washington since a diplomatic row erupted between the allies....
Netanyahu’s refusal to budge on East Jerusalem, the fate of which lies at the crux of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, defies a US demand to cancel a major housing project at the heart of the feud. But in confidential talks, he apparently offered enough steps to prompt US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to call them “useful and productive’’ and dispatch an envoy back to the region this week.
Before meeting with Israel’s defense minister yesterday, envoy George Mitchell described ties between the US and Israel as “unshakable.’’
Which means all this food-tossing is bulls***.
Netanyahu departed for Washington last night to address the annual conference of the pro-Israel lobby in the US. He will meet President Obama tomorrow, a spokesman said.
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Also see: Clinton's Circles: At the Feet of the Master
Ready for a good poking?
"US-Israel talks go into overtime to try to repair relations" by Matthew Lee, Associated Press | March 25, 2010
WASHINGTON — The United States and Israel engaged in overtime talks yesterday trying to win agreement on gestures Israel can take to restore confidence among Palestinians and the Obama administration and salvaging a diplomatic visit marred by the worst US-Israeli breach in years....
Earlier yesterday, the Obama administration challenged Israel to explain yet another announced plan to expand Jewish housing in East Jerusalem, the same issue that soured US-Israeli relations ahead of Netanyahu’s three-day visit to Washington this week.
Is that ever an IN-YOUR-FUCKING-FACE MOVE or what?
But, yeah, Iswael is so sowwy!!!!
Netanyahu offered no concessions during his visit....
What, he FORGET HIS PIECE of PAPER?
PFFFFFFTTT!!
An aide to Netanyahu said the prime minister was caught off guard by the announcement yesterday that the Jerusalem municipality has approved 20 new apartments for Jews.
Stop lying, please.
Although Obama and Netanyahu met for a total of two hours, the White House did not issue a formal statement on what was discussed in either meeting.
One word: IRAN
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