THE TELEGRAPH: Israel was accused of "spitting in Obama's eye" after it announced plans to build 100 more settler homes in east Jerusalem just hours after Israel's prime minister met the US president at the White House.
Municipal officials approved the Jewish housing project in one of Jerusalem's most volatile Palestinian suburbs just hours before Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, met Mr Obama for emergency talks.
US officials had hoped that a meeting between the two leaders could defuse tensions triggered when Israel announced plans to build 1,600 new homes in east Jerusalem's Ramat Shlomo settlement during a visit earlier this month by Joe Biden, the US vice-president.
But in the days leading up to the meeting, Mr Netanyahu defiantly rejected US demands to reverse the expansion of Ramat Shlomo and halt all building in east Jerusalem, which Israel captured in the 1967 Six-Day war.
That Israel then approved a new building project, the suspension of which the United States had demanded as long ago as last July, can only have infuriated Mr Obama.
The meeting at the White House was the iciest between an American president and an Israeli premier in recent years. Mr Netanyahu was treated to a series of small but calculated diplomatic slights that left him in no doubt of the White House's displeasure.
There were no photographs before or after the meeting, no questions from reporters and no press briefing or "readout" afterwards.
The “honest and straightforward discussion” ended with areas of “disagreement”, according to Robert Gibbs, the White House spokesman, who added that US officials were seeking “clarification” of Israel’s plan for a further expansion of Jewish housing.
But an Israeli government spokesman sought to put a brave face on the encounter, saying: “the atmosphere was good”.
But the evidence suggested it was anything but. The meeting itself was in two parts: an initial 89-minute session followed by a further 35 minutes at Mr Netanyahu's request, after he had consulted his officials. >>> Adrian Blomfield in Jerusalem and Toby Harnden in Washington | Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Verbunden:
Kühler Empfang für Netanyahu im Weissen Haus: Israels Regierungschef verteidigt Wohnungsbau in Ostjerusalem >>> ddp/sda/Reuters | Mittwoch, 24. März 2010
TIMES ONLINE: Two separate meetings between President Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, failed today to produce so much as an official photograph as a deep chill settled over US-Israeli relations and secrecy shrouded any efforts to repair them.
The Israeli Prime Minister was due to fly home from Washington after three days marked by fierce Israeli defiance on the issue of settlements and an extraordinary silence maintained by both sides after his three-and-a-half hour visit to the White House.
The meeting was overshadowed by Israeli approval for 20 new apartments being built for Jews in Arab east Jerusalem — a move denounced by one senior US official as “exactly what we expect Prime Minister Netanyahu to get control of”.
White House staff denied Mr Netanyahu the usual photo opportunities afforded a visiting leader, issued only the vaguest summary of their talks — let alone a joint statement — and reversed a decision to release an official photo of their meetings. >>> Giles Whittell, Washington | Wednesday, March 24, 2010
