US-Israel Talks in Paris Aborted
BBC: A meeting between Israel's prime minister and a senior US envoy has been cancelled amid growing differences over settlement building in the West Bank.

Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot said the US put off the meeting in response to Benjamin Netanyahu's refusal to heed US demands to halt settlement activity.

But Mr Netanyahu's aides say it was the prime minister who cancelled Thursday's meeting with George Mitchell in Paris.

They said "more professional work" was needed, without adding further details.

Instead, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak is now scheduled to travel to Washington on Monday to meet Mr Mitchell.

Mr Netanyahu has arrived in Paris from Rome, on his first trip to Europe since he took office.

He is promoting his hawkish line on Iran, seeking harsher sanctions over its nuclear programme.

US State Department officials confirmed that the bilateral talks in Paris had been postponed, but they did not explain why it was necessary for their envoy to see Mr Barak on Monday instead. >>> | Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Israel Rebuffs Hillary Clinton's Call for Halt in West Bank Settlements
TIMES ONLINE: Israel’s new right-wing government was set for its first stand-off with the Obama Administration today, after it openly rebuffed a call from Washington to a total freeze on all Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, called last night for Israel halt all construction of settlements, considered illegal by the international community as they are civilian communities built on war-conquered land.

Binyamin Netanyahu, the hawkish Israeli Prime Minister, offered last week in Washington to dismantle new settlement outposts in return for being allowed to continue “natural growth” on the established West Bank communities.

But Mrs Clinton made a surprisingly curt rebuttal to the proposal, insisting that Mr Obama – who travels to Cairo next week to try and heal strained US ties with the Muslim world – wanted a blanket ban on settlement growth.

He wants to see a stop to settlements — not some settlements, not outposts, not 'natural growth' exceptions,” she said. “We think it is in the best interests (of the peace process) that settlement expansion cease. That is our position. That is what we have communicated very clearly. ... And we intend to press that point.” >>> James Hider in Jerusalem | Thursday, May 28, 2009

THE TELEGRAPH: Telegraph View

The White House must not show ambiguity in its relations with Israel.

President Barack Obama was, it seems, nonplussed by his meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this month. He was said to have been taken aback by the Israeli prime minister's intransigent tone over West Bank settlements and the two-state solution.

If these reports are accurate, there should be no surprise in the White House this morning at Israel's brusque response to Hillary Clinton's demand for a complete halt on all settlement activity.

The US Secretary of State had said there could be no exceptions from President Obama's call for a settlement freeze. "Not some settlements, not outposts, not natural growth exceptions. We think it is in the best interest of the effort that we are engaged in that settlement expansion cease", Mrs Clinton said. President Barack Obama Must Start to Act the Part >>> | Thursday, May 28, 2009