THE TELEGRAPH: The United States thwarted an Israeli attempt to play down a diplomatic rift between the two countries on Sunday by renewing its condemnation of plans to build new settler homes in occupied East Jerusalem.
After days of uncharacteristically caustic criticism from Washington, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, suggested that claims of a crisis between the Jewish state and its superpower patron were overblown.
“I suggest not to get carried away and to calm down,” Mr Netanyahu told his cabinet.
“We look at this morning’s newspapers and read all kinds of comments and analysis,” he said. “First of all, I suggest that we don’t get carried away. We know how to deal with these situations.”
Yet the prime minister's display of confidence rapidly began to appear misplaced. Within hours, a senior aide to President Barack Obama indicated that displeasure over Israel's actions during last week's visit to the Holy Land by Joe Biden, the US vice president, had far from dissipated.
"This was an affront, it was an insult but most importantly it undermined this very fragile effort to bring peace to that region," David Axelrod, Mr Obama's most senior political adviser, told NBC news. "This was not the right way to behave." >>> Adrian Blomfield in Jerusalem | Sunday, March 14, 2010
BBC: Ties between Israel and US 'worst in 35 years': Israel's ambassador to the US has said that relations between the two countries face their worst crisis for 35 years, Israeli media have reported. >>> | Monday, March 15, 2010
