US Israeli relations reach a settlement

US: No breakthrough expected soon

An American official has played down the prospects of any immediate progress in US envoy George Mitchell’s efforts to resume peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians. President Shimon Peres assured Mitchell on Friday that Israel was committed to peace.

Bad Faith in the Holy City

Since 1967, virtually every time a U.S. envoy has arrived to discuss the fate of the West Bank or Gaza, the Israeli government of the day has bluntly shown who is really boss, usually with a carefully timed unilateral expansion of Israel’s presence in the occupied territories. Since the 1970s, Israel has illegally settled close to half a million of its citizens in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, not to mention building a barrier mainly inside the West Bank on Arab-owned land that is longer and taller than the Berlin Wall.

Given that for a year the Obama administration has sought a settlement freeze in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, it is impossible to interpret the latest announcement of settlement expansion in the city as anything but a provocation.

U.S.-Israeli Ties: What’s Really Happening?

Essentially, there have been three causes of the crisis. First, the change in U.S. administrations....

Second, ... the election of Feb. 10, 2009, which brought Binyamin Netanyahu to power.

Third, and perhaps most important, the unwise settlement policies of Mr. Netanyahu, especially his policy of construction in Jerusalem that over the last few years has become the most sensitive issue in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.