New housing project in E-Jerusalem approved just hours before meeting Netanyahu-Obama

The Shepherd hotel in Sheikh Jarrah, owned by  casino tycoon Irwin Moskowitz. It will be taken down to make place for 20 appartments for Jews, plus  shops and a parking lot. 

Israeli prime minister Netanyahu has met president Obama for the first time since relations were soured by the announcement that 1,600 settler homes were to be built in occupied East Jerusalem. Both men talked for 90 minutes on Tuesday, but the meeting at the White House was overshadowed by the news that more building permits had been issued for the disputed city.  
Hours before the meeting took place, the Jerusalem municipality said on its website that final permission had been granted for the construction of 20 housing units, shops and a carpark at the Shepherd hotel compound in Sheikh Jarrah, a Palestinian neighbourhood in East Jerusalem. Netanyahu's office said the prime minister heard about the media reports of the project's approval half an hour before visiting the white House and did not know about it beforehand.
The Jerusalem municipality said that approving the project was not meant to interfere with Netanyahu's visit and was just an automatic outcome of the burocratic process. 'Once the construction permits have been paid for they are automatically issued,' the city's spokesman said on Israeli public radio. However, when the project was approved in July, Washington demanded it be halted and summoned Michael Oren, Israel's ambassador to the US, to be reprimanded.

Underlining the tensions between the two allies, the meeting between Netanyahu and Obama was unusually low-key. The media were prevented from taking pictures and there was no news conference held afterwards.
PJ Crowley, the US state department spokesman, told The Associated Press news agency that the US and Israel were engaged in 'give and take' after Washington was angered by the settlement announcment made during a visit by Joe Biden, the US vice-president. 'We are not going to talk about the precise steps both sides have to take. We will continue to discuss those steps privately,' he said.
Nir Chefetz, Netanyahu's spokesman, said that the 'atmosphere was good' at the meeting. He said the two leaders' advisers 'continued discussions on the ideas raised at the meeting' and would hold further talks on Wednesday.


Netanyahu has shown little sign of giving in to US pressure over the settlement issue during his three-day visit.
Earler om Tuesday he said to the Israeli media that 'if the Americans support the unreasonable demands made by the  Palestinians regarding a freeze on settlements in east Jerusalem and  the West Bank, the peace process risks being blocked for a year' Also he said that 'relations between Israel and the United States should not be hostage to differences between the two countries over the peace process with the Palestinians'.
Those remarks came after a defiant speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) on  Monday in which he said that 'Jerusalem is not a settlement'.
Before meeting Obama, Netanyahu received a warm bipartisan welcome at congress. Also there Netanyahu told the legislators that he feared peace talks with Palestinians may be delayed for another year unless Palestinians dropped their demand for a full freeze on Jewish settlement building.'We must not be trapped by an illogical and unreasonable demand,' Netanyahu said during a meeting with congressional leaders, according to his spokesman.

But Nabil Abu Rdainah, an aide to Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, told the Reuters news agency: 'Netanyahu's policy is the one that is obstructing the return to negotiations.' We are ready to go back to negotiations if Netanyahu adheres to what came in the statement of the Quartet,' he said. At a meeting in Moscow on Friday, the Quartet of Middle East mediators comprising the UN, the US, the EU and Russia, called on Israel to freeze settlement activity.

The paper Haaretz, in the meantime, wrote about two opinion polls which show that almost half of the Israeli public is in favour of freezing the building programs in Jerusalem. Former politican Yehuda ben Meir of the National Religious Party seemed alarmed by the findings.  'Two surveys published in recent days produced astonishing findings about the public's attitude on construction in Jerusalem,' he wrote, 'findings that should alarm every Jew. In a Haaretz-Dialog poll, 48 percent of the respondents said Israel should continue building in all parts of Jerusalem, even if the price is a rift with the United States, while 41 percent said Israel should stop building in East Jerusalem until the end of negotiations with the Palestinians. Almost identical findings came up in a Mina Tzemach poll, where 46 percent said building in East Jerusalem should be frozen and only 51 percent opposed such a move.'

Clinton at AIPAC: status quo ME is unsustainable, Netanyahu defiant

These days all eyes are directed towards AIPAC, the American Jewish lobby. Or rather the eyes of everbody  who is either Israeli or American and interested in Middle East politics. AIPAC's annual Policy Conference is indicative of how popular the lobby  is with American policy makers  and gives - since some of the actors are present  - an idea about the current state of affairs.
Well no big surprises there. In the presence of many members of Congress Bibi Netanyahu yesterday gave a speech at the gala, He showed himself  defiant  and without mentioning the recent crisis in the relations after Israel announced the building of another 1600 appartments in East-Jerusalem, he said that 'the connection between the Jewish people and the Land of Israel cannot be denied. The Jewish people were building Jerusalem 3,000 year ago and the Jewish people are building Jerusalem today. Jerusalem is not a settlement. It is our capital.'
Netanyahu also said that 'in Jerusalem, my government has maintained the policies of every single Israeli governments since 1967, including those led by Golda Meir, Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Rabin. .... Everyone knows -- everyone, Americans, Europeans, Israelis certainly, Palestinians -- that these neighborhoods will be part of Israel in any peace settlement. and terefore, building them in no way precludes the possibility of a two-state solution.'

One day earlier it was Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's turn for a speech. She told the conference that the status quo is unsustainable.'For President Obama, for me, and for this entire administration, our commitment to Israel’s security and Israel’s future is rock solid,' Clinton said. But, 'as Israel’s friend, it is our responsibility to give credit when it is due and to tell the truth when it is needed.'

The status quo is unsustainable for all sides," Clinton said. 'It promises only more violence and unrealized aspirations. Staying on this course means continuing a conflict that carries tragic human costs. Israeli and Palestinian children alike deserve to grow up free from fear and to have the opportunity to live up to their full God-given potential.'

On the subject of Iran she said: ' let me be very clear: The United States is determined to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons'.
Netanyahu, however, was equally clear on this. 'The future of the Jewish state can never depend on the goodwill of even the greatest of men,' Netanyahu said, after praising the role of Roosevelt and Churchill in World War II, but pointing at their failure to save 6 million Jewish people. 'Israel must always reserve the right to defend itself.'

This evening Netanyahu will see Obama who after his health care victory in Congress is, as some point out, a stronger man than before. Some believe that because of this renewed strength, Obama will take a firmer position. Others  expect him to act tactically with an eye on the long run - just as he did with respect to the health care bill - and spare a more muscular showing for the negotiations themselves, when difficult decisions are needed.

I don't believe in either of these hypotheses, although I certainly would love to. I really believe that Obama does not have the guts to withstand AIPAC (whose newly elected chaiman Lee Rosenberg sat on his finance comittee during his election campaign). Obama, however, could, if he wished to do so,  make a fist against Netanyahu with the support of a majority of the American and Jewish public. J Street, the new moderate lobby that 'competes' with AIPAC on Tusday published a survey among American Jews which showed a remarkable amount of support for a strong American role in the peace process, even if that would mean exerting pressure on Israel:

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  American Jews by a four-to-one margin, 82-18 percent, support the United States playing an active role in helping the parties to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict, with 73 percent of American Jews supporting this active role even if it means that the United States were to publicly state its disagreements with both the Israelis and the Arabs.

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  * By a 71-29 percent margin, American Jews support the United States "exerting pressure" on both the Israelis and the Arabs to make the necessary compromises to achieve peace. An earlier J Street poll last March found a similar level of support.

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  A majority of all American Jews, 52-48 percent, still support an active role even if the United States were to publicly state its disagreements with only Israel. (My emphasis).

A survey by Zogby International under Americans of all denominations shows that 81% of all Amerians agree that the Middle East conflict has a negative impact on US interests. Also  40 % of Americans (63% .Democrats, 13% Republicans) think that the US should get tough with Israël in order to stop settlements.       A Rasmussen poll, also taken in March,  went even further and concluded that 49% of American voters thinks that Israel should stop building settelements as part of a peace deal. 
Let'see if it will convince the president.