Israeli right cuts Biden's legs away

[David Guyatt]

Well now.

Netanyahu boasts of success in US row

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, boasted that he had faced down American demands to halt Jewish construction in East Jerusalem, raising the stakes in a diplomatic row with Washington.

By Adrian Blomfield in Jerusalem
Published: 11:33AM GMT 22 Mar 2010

Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu Photo: REUTERS

Mr Netanyahu avoided a much feared snub after he was formally invited to hold talks with President Barack Obama at the White House on Tuesday despite the worst crisis in US-Israeli relations for more than a decade.
The invitation represented a victory Mr Netanyahu a two-week standoff with the United States triggered after Israel unveiled plans to expand a Jewish settlement in occupied East Jerusalem.

Despite intense pressure demands from Hillary Clinton, the US secretary, to reverse the expansion and refrain from all further building in East Jerusalem, which Israel captured in the 1967 Six Day war, has so far been resisted. .
Mr Netanyahu appeared emboldened at a cabinet where he proclaimed he had forced the United States to accept that East Jerusalem, seen by the Palestinians as the capital of a future state, was as Jewish as the rest of Israel.
"As far as we are concerned, building in Jerusalem is the same as building in Tel Aviv," he said. "I wrote a letter, at my own initiative, to the secretary of state so that things would be crystal clear."
Mr Netanyahu was given additional encouragement after George Mitchell, Mr Obama's special envoy to the Middle East, arrived in Jerusalem and hailed ties between Israel and the United States as "unshakeable".
Yet Mr Netanyahu has been forced to make some concessions.
He has agreed to make "confidence building" concessions to the Palestinians that include easing a three-year Israel blockade of Gaza.
Some observers have warned that Mr Netanyahu's confidence may be misplaced, predicting that President Obama could renew his demand for a settlement freeze in East Jerusalem when the two men meet.
But Mr Obama could be left open to potentially embarrassing accusations that he has twice backed down in confrontations with Israel.
Last year he reluctantly accepted a proposal from Mr Netanyahu for a partial slowdown of Jewish construction in the West Bank despite having previously demanded a total settlement freeze.
Mr Obama's efforts to revive the Middle East peace process have also foundered.
Highlighting the volatility that has arisen in the wake of row, Israeli troops shot dead four Palestinians in the West Bank over the weekend.
Israel also came under pressure from Ban Ki-Moon, the United Nations secretary general, who used a visit to Gaza to warn that Israel's blockade was "empowering extremists".