BBC Offers £30,000 and an Apology for Question Time 'Slur' on Islamic Leaders over Anti-war Protest
Former Daily Telegraph editor Charles Moore 'slurred' the Muslim Council of Britain while appearing as a panellist on Question Time. Photo courtesy of MailOnline
MAIL Online: The BBC has offered to pay £30,000 and apologise to the Muslim Council of Britain after airing claims that it encourages the killing of British troops.

The Corporation caved in after a panellist on the Question Time TV programme accused the country's most influential Muslim organisation of failing to condemn attacks on soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The broadcaster was threatened with legal action over comments by former Daily Telegraph editor Charles Moore during a debate about Islamic protests which marred a soldiers' homecoming parade in Luton.

Mr Moore blamed the MCB's leadership for its apparent reluctance to condemn the killing and kidnapping of British soldiers overseas. He went on to claim that it thought it was a 'good thing' to kill troops.

Faced with the threat of a writ, the BBC made an offer of 'amends' and an apology on the Question Time website. But this has been rejected and the MCB is demanding an apology on air.

The Corporation's decision to pay out will raise eyebrows in Whitehall, where ministers have refused to settle a similar defamation claim over a letter written by Communities Secretary Hazel Blears.

A BBC insider said the move has also angered Mr Moore, who was not consulted over the legal response to the complaint or even informed that an offer to settle had been made.

Question Time is recorded an hour before broadcast specifically so that legal advisers can check its content for possible libels.
No legal worries were expressed over Mr Moore's remarks, which were seen as provocative but not defamatory. >>> By Paul Revoir and Abul Taher | Friday, May 29, 2009

Apology for one and not the other: Charles Moore's words compared to Hazel Blears's letter. Image courtesy of MailOnline
BBC: BBC Offers Apology to Muslim Council of Britain over Guest's Remarks

The BBC has offered £30,000 and an apology to the Muslim Council of Britain after airing accusations that it encouraged the killing of British troops.

The corporation offered the settlement after a Question Time panellist accused the council of failing to condemn attacks on British soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Charles Moore, a former editor of The Daily Telegraph, made the comments on the programme in March during a debate about Islamic protests at a soldiers’ homecoming parade in Luton. He claimed that the council thought it was a “good thing, even an Islamic thing” to kill troops.

The council, an umbrella organisation representing about 500 Islamic bodies in Britain, said that his claims were a “total lie” and threatened the BBC with legal action.

It pointed to a 2007 interview with its secretary-general, Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, published in a national newspaper, in which he categorically condemned attacks on British soldiers.

Last night Dr Bari said: “These kinds of statements are very damaging, and we received many complaints from our Muslim supporters who said they were extremely offended by the comments. >>> Hannah Fletcher | Saturday, May 30, 2009

British Asians Are Role Models, Says Cameron
THE OBSERVER: British asians [sic] provide a model for the rest of the country, David Cameron declares today, as he argues that many Asians cannot be blamed for failing to integrate.

In a powerful article in today's Observer, Cameron says that Britain's drug ridden cities are understandably alarming many Asians. 'The picture is seriously bleak: family breakdown, drugs, crime and incivility are part of the normal experience of modern Britain,' Cameron writes.

'Many British Asians see a society that hardly inspires them to integrate. Indeed, they see aspects of modern Britain which are a threat to the values they hold dear. Not for the first time, I found myself thinking that it is mainstream Britain which needs to integrate more with the British Asian way of life, not the other way around.'

Cameron wrote today's article after spending two days with a British Asian family in Birmingham. The Tory leader stayed in the spare bedroom of Abdullah and Shahida Rehman's house and enjoyed a curry with the family.

During his stay Cameron learned how Muslims feel marginalised in today's Britain with one upsetting issue being the use of language.

'We must be careful about the language we use,' he writes. 'Many Muslims ... are deeply offended by the use of the word "Islamic" or "Islamist" to describe the terrorist threat we face today.' [Source: Guardian/Observer] Nicholas Watt and Jamie Doward | Sunday, May 13, 2007

Why Muslims Hate Dogs

Das Ende der alten britischen Ordnung
DIE PRESSE: Die Wirtschaft ist ruiniert, die politische Kaste hat sich mit einem parteiübergreifenden Spesenskandal diskreditiert, und der Premier hängt in den Seilen. Das Land geht harten Zeiten entgegen.

LONDON. Als Gordon Brown vor knapp zwei Jahren Premier wurde, versprach er den Briten: „Lasst uns das Werk der Veränderung beginnen.“ In seiner nur 23 Sätze langen Antrittsrede verwendete er das Wort „Change“ nicht weniger als sieben Mal. Seine Ankündigung ist wahr geworden. Doch nicht so, wie Brown es wollte. Die alte Ordnung ist fast völlig zusammengebrochen.

Denn Großbritannien erlebt dieser Tage ein dramatisches „Fin de Regime“. Zum wirtschaftlichen Bankrott ist nun auch noch die Selbstzerstörung der politischen Klasse getreten. Seit mehr als zwei Wochen enthüllt der „Daily Telegraph“ täglich die seltsamen Spesengebarungen der Abgeordneten des Unterhauses. Kaum einer der 646 Parlamentarier steigt mit weißer Weste aus. Die Mehrheit ließ sich alles von der Entfernung von Pferdemist bis zur Errichtung von Entenhäuschen auf dem heimatlichen Gartenteich vom Steuerzahler begleichen. Zuletzt kündigte Labour-Abgeordnete Margaret Moran ihren Rücktritt an. Sie hatte 25.000 Euro für ihr Wochenendhaus beansprucht, um dort Holzfäule beseitigen zu lassen. >>> Axel Reiserer | Freitag, 29. Mai 2009

The Rise Of British Racism May Be Horribly Close
THE SPECTATOR: As the June elections draw close, Fraser Nelson goes on the stump with the BNP and is struck by a troubling paradox: the less racist Britain is, the more popular this racist party becomes. As Westminster implodes, far Right politicians are posturing as the tribunes of working people

Angela Wallace is one of a new breed of wavering voter. ‘I’m disgusted with all of the parties,’ she says, peering suspiciously at the men with clipboards on her doorstep. ‘MPs are not like they used to be. Now they’re all as bad as each other.’ The political activists I am accompanying have a ready response. ‘Well, why not make a protest vote?’ asks the candidate. ‘We’re the BNP.’ They have a leaflet ready: ‘Punish the Pigs’, it says. The BNP, it continues, is ‘the only party that makes them squeal. We’re NOT in it for the money.’ She promises to think about it.

In these deliberations, she will be very far from alone. In next week’s European and local elections, some 800,000 people are projected to vote BNP if the party continues its steady, menacing and (since 1987) unbroken advance. This time it is on the cusp of a breakthrough. All it needs is 8.5 per cent of the vote in the North West and Nick Griffin, its leader, will be on his way to Strasbourg as an MEP. If so, he will achieve what the National Front and the British Union of Fascists could only dream of: a legitimate seat in a legislature.

Just ten years ago, obituaries were being written for British racial nationalism. Oswald Mosley may have filled the Albert Hall in 1940, but he never won so much as a council ward at the ballot box. The National Front won two such contests, but was crushed by Thatcher in 1979 and never recovered. The British National Party had a brief victory in Isle of Dogs in 1993 but then seemed to perish. To hawk its racism in a country as tolerant as Britain seemed as futile as trying to start a coconut farm in Yorkshire. It just didn’t seem to take root.

In recent years, however, under the very noses of the apparently triumphant mainstream political class, the BNP has suddenly started to grow again — and its rise is exponential. Nine years ago it scored just 3,020 votes in England’s local elections. Last year its total was 235,000, giving the BNP 56 incumbent councillors. One such is Seamus Dunne, whom I meet outside the Dick Whittington pub in South Oxhey, a Hertfordshire housing estate built after the war. He has agreed to let me tag along with him and his fellow campaigners, to see what he calls the ‘real BNP’ — not what he regards as the caricature invented by the media.

Certainly, Mr Dunne could scarcely be more different from the stereotype of the tattooed thug. Besuited and softly spoken, he talks about taking his family to Kew Gardens and says that he wants to serve locals — ‘black or white’ — as best he can. It is a racially mixed estate, and there is no telling what the ethnicity of the voter opening the door will be. But the first, a young white man in his thirties, is a quick success. ‘You’re the guy who sorted out the rat infestation for us,’ he tells Mr Dunne. ‘You’ll get my vote. I’m BNP, and so is everyone I know.’

This is the first important point to note: there is no explicit talk of race, immigration or the death penalty (which the BNP supports). Just rats. This chap had a problem; his councillor fixed it and secured at least one vote. This is a significant and new aspect of the BNP’s strategy. Just as Lib Dems talk about holes in the road, not holes in the nation’s finances, the BNP (in spite of its nationalist identity) focuses relentlessly on the local. It targets councils with huge (normally Labour) majorities which have, for whatever reason, lost the will or capacity to campaign and govern well. The BNP then seeks to make itself useful: most recently, by sending squads to clear litter in strategic locations. It is a devious ploy: distracting public attention from the racist reality of the BNP by presenting itself as the ‘helpful party’. >>> Fraser Nelson | Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Muslim Demographics

Iran: Holocaust Is West's Achilles' Heel
YNET NEWS: President Ahmadinejad also says Iran now has more than 7,000 centrifuges operating at Natanz

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday that the Holocaust is "the Achilles' heel of the West and its main weakness", explaining that this was the reason for its continued mentioning of the subject.

Responding to comments made by his opponents in an upcoming nationwide election, Ahmadinejad told a radio station that "the West has created a situation of false pity for itself and is using it to oppress other nations".

He added, "We attacked the issue of the Holocaust and even they didn't believe such a thing occurred, because we attacked their main weak point." >>> Dudi Cohen | Thursday, May 28, 2009

From Soviet Secularism to Israeli Ultra-Orthodoxy
HAARETZ: On Lag Ba'omer, a group of merrymakers squeezed around a traditional holiday campfire in a patch of garden between two buildings in Rishon Letzion. They roasted potatoes, like everyone else, and burned an effigy of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, like everyone else. David Schechter, who served as an advisor to former minister Natan Sharansky, said he can't remember what else went up in smoke, because "the vodka flowed like water."

The guests at this campfire were all immigrants from the former Soviet Union who have become observant Jews and wear skullcaps. They are doctors and lawyers, journalists and businesspeople, and fathers and sons who meet regularly at the local synagogue, where about a quarter of the congregation is Russian-speaking. Every couple of months, they are joined by a new worshipper with the same background.

Schechter, who became religiously observant while still living in Moscow, before immigrating to Israel in 1987, is called the "rabbi of the brigade." This is a slight exaggeration, although Schechter occupies a significant role in encouraging the phenomenon of returning to religion among immigrants. And even if the trend is no tidal wave, it contradicts a stereotype. >>> By Lily Galili, Haaretz Correspondent | Friday, May 29, 2009

Deutschland stellt Besuch von «Terrorcamps» unter Strafe: Bis zu zehn Jahre Haft für den Aufenthalt in Ausbildungslagern
NZZ Online: Der Deutsche Bundestag hat den Besuch sogenannter Terrorcamps unter Strafe gestellt und die 1999 ausgelaufene Kronzeugenregelung wieder in Kraft gesetzt. Die Opposition kritisiert beide Neuerungen. Liberale und Grüne malen eine Gesinnungsjustiz an die Wand.

Die Gefahr, die von militanten Islamisten ausgeht, schlägt sich immer deutlicher im deutschen Strafrecht nieder. Am Donnerstag beschloss der Bundestag zahlreiche Änderungen, darunter die Einführung eines neuen Paragrafen 89a, der die Vorbereitung einer schweren staatsgefährdenden Gewalttat mit Haftstrafen von bis zu zehn Jahren belegt. >>> U. Sd. | Freitag, 29. Mai 2009

In Search of Europe: Austria
BBC: Many Austrians are deeply suspicious of the EU, the BBC's Jonny Dymond reports, as he tours the continent ahead of next month's European elections.

Austria is a big central European paradox. Its language links it to Germany. Its culture links it to Italy. Its former empire links it to Hungary, the western Balkans, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. It is difficult to imagine a place more plugged into Europe.

And it is difficult to find anyone with a good word to say about the EU.

Down in the 10th district of Vienna the fast food joints rub shoulders with cheap jewellery stores and mobile phone shops. It's a working class area with a high immigrant population.

At an outside table in a cafe in a market, Horst Glasner and Hans Bubnik are settling into a fairly liquid lunch. As they drink white wine they bite into fat pickled cucumbers sold from a barrel at a stall a few metres away. Both men are retired.

Neither have anything but contempt for the EU.

"We have a bit of a problem with the whole thing," says Horst. "The problem is that the EU is not honest. They cheat on us a lot. This is the big problem."

"The problem is that everything has become more expensive," says Hans. "Since we joined the EU everything has been a third more expensive."

Horst finds another problem.

"Every country is in a different situation. The EU must look at the individual conditions. And this is the big problem." >>> Jonny Dymond | Friday, May 29, 2009

EU Vote Makes Officials Nervous
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: If Bulgarian Bilyana Raeva is re-elected to the European Parliament next weekend, she will get a more than eightfold raise. She could also find herself sitting beside a bumper crop of lawmakers from Europe's extreme right.

The European Union's Brussels-based legislature is little loved and less understood, but after polls on June 4-7, it is likely to look significantly different, with new members, new rules and potentially new powers.

The parliament is the Cinderella of EU institutions. With no right to initiate legislation, it is limited to negotiating amendments or blocking laws crafted by the more powerful EU council -- made up of the national governments -- and European Commission, the EU bureaucracy.

But the next legislature could get expanded powers -- and perhaps more public attention and gravitas -- if Ireland later this year ratifies an important treaty amending the way the EU works.

It could also get a laundered reputation. The parliament will have new rules governing legislators' salaries and expenses after an expense-abuse scandal that began three years ago, involving sums far greater than those in the current uproar over Britain's House of Commons.

But the coming election to the Brussels-based parliament is seizing attention in capitals across the 27-nation bloc for a different reason. In the midst of the worst recession since World War II, the vote could offer a guide to political fallout for national governments to come.

"People think that the local and European elections don't matter as much, so they can use those votes to punish politicians they are unhappy with," says Julia Clark, head of political research at pollster Ipsos MORI in the U.K. Germany holds national elections in the fall, while the U.K. must hold them by June 2010.

From a Romanian property tycoon on bail on kidnapping charges, to a Cambridge-educated ultranationalist in Britain, nationalist, anti-immigrant and xenophobic politicians are campaigning to tap into popular anger. Some are likely to make it to Brussels. >>> By Gaston Ceron in Brussels and Alistair MacDonald in London | Friday, May 29, 2009

Today in History for May 29th

Obama: «je crois fermement
à une solution à deux Etats»
Mahmoud Abbas avec Barack Obama. Photo grâce au Figaro
LE FIGARO: Le président américain, qui reçevait jeudi soir le leader palestinien Mahmoud Abbas, a répété qu'il exigeait l'arrêt de la colonisation israélienne en Cisjordanie.

Barack Obama maintient le cap de la fermeté dans la relation entre Etats-Unis et Israël. Le président américain reçevait jeudi soir le leader de l'Autorité palestinienne, Mahmoud Abbas, à la Maison-Blanche. Une visite qui prend un ton tout particulier, alors que la nouvelle administration israélienne fait la sourde oreille à l'injonction de Washington, mercredi, de geler les constructions de colonies en Cisjordanie et refuse d'envisager la solution à deux Etats séparés préconisée par les Etats-Unis.

Mahmoud Abbas, qui ne contrôle concrètement que la Cisjordanie, le Hamas tenant d'une main de fer la Bande de Gaza, est venu à Washington pour rappeler l'urgence de relancer le processus de paix israélo-palestinien. Pour lui, «le temps est un facteur essentiel» dans l'affaire.

Le dirigeant palestinien a d'ailleurs remis à Barack Obama un document contenant des propositions pour sortir de l'impasse. «Ce document ne sort pas du cadre de la Feuille de route et de l'Initiative de paix arabe. Il contient des idées pour la mise en place de mécanismes d'application de ces deux plans», précise-t-il, assurant qu'Obama a promis de l'étudier.

Rappelant une nouvelle fois que les Etats-Unis sont «un allié inconditionnel» d'Israël, le président américain a adopté un ton optimiste sur la perspective d'un apaisement des tensions au Proche-Orient. «Je pense qu'il est important de ne pas s'attendre au pire, mais d'espérer le meilleur», a-t-il lancé, demandant à nouveau l'arrêt de la colonisation israélienne. >>> Samuel Laurent (lefigaro.fr) avec agences | Vendredi 29 Mai 2009

LOS ANGELES TIMES: U.S.-Israel Rift Becomes an Unusually Public One

President Barack Obama meets with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and repeats his tough stance on Jewish settlements. Obama is to deliver a speech to the Muslim world next week from Cairo.

Reporting from Jerusalem and Washington Richard Boudreaux -- President Obama and top Israeli officials staked out sharply opposing positions over the explosive issue of Jewish settlements Thursday, propelling a rare dispute between the two close allies into full public view just days before the U.S. leader is due to deliver a long-awaited address in Egypt to the world's Muslims.

Speaking after a White House meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Obama reiterated that he had been "very clear about the need to stop building settlements, to stop building outposts" on Palestinian territory.

Only hours earlier, the Israeli government said it would continue to allow some growth in the settler communities in the West Bank.

The exchange underscored the unusually hard-line position Obama has taken publicly with Israel early in his administration. Most U.S. presidents, aware of the political sensitivity, have worked hard to keep disagreements out of sight, when they existed.

The back and forth also added a contentious note to the start of a grueling period of Middle East peace talks that the White House has pledged to aggressively pursue. And it comes as Obama prepares his speech scheduled for next week that is aimed at repairing U.S. ties with the Muslim world.

The verbal disagreement with Israel defied expectations of U.S. and Israeli officials, as well as many analysts, who had predicted that the new American president and the newer conservative Israeli prime minister would seek a pragmatic way to avoid public clashes.

But since Obama met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House 11 days ago, the contrasts have steadily risen in public view.

Obama believes an Israeli settlement freeze would elicit concessions from moderate Arab states, reinvigorating peace negotiations.

In staff-level talks that continue almost daily, Israeli officials have balked. >>> By Paul Richter and Christi Parsons and Richard Boudreaux | Friday, May 29, 2009

Georgien: Großdemo gegen Präsident Saakaschwili
DIE PRESSE: Tausende Demonstranten blockierten am Dienstagabend den Bahnhof der Hauptstadt Tiflis. Die Saakaschwili-Gegner fordern den Rücktritt des Präsidenten. Sie wefen ihm einen autoritären Führungsstil vor.

Michail Saakaschwili. Bild dank der Presse
Nach einer Großdemonstration gegen den georgischen Präsidenten Michail Saakaschwili haben tausende Demonstranten am Dienstagabend den Bahnhof der Hauptstadt Tiflis blockiert. Nach mehreren Stunden beendeten sie die Aktion wieder friedlich. Sie kündigten für die Zukunft weitere Blockaden an, um Saakaschwilis Rücktritt zu erzwingen. >>> Ag. | Mittwoch, 27. Mai 2009

Débarquement : la reine Elizabeth ne viendra pas
La reine Elizabeth II. Photo grâce au Figaro
LE FIGARO: Buckingham Palace assure toutefois que la reine n'est ni en colère, ni frustrée de ne pas avoir été officiellement invitée par la France, aux cérémonies du 6 juin.

«Ni la reine ni aucun membre de la famille royale ne participera aux commémorations du Jour-J le 6 juin, puisque nous n'avons reçu d'invitation officielle pour aucun des événements» prévus. La sobre déclaration a été diffusée jeudi par Buckingham Palace, comme pour clore la polémique naissante sur un éventuel délit de lèse-majesté de la France.

Mercredi, le tabloïd Daily Mail affirmait que la reine était «furieuse» et «frustrée» de ne pas avoir reçu de carton d'invitation aux cérémonies du 65e anniversaire du débarquement allié en Normandie le 6 juin.

Suite à cet article, le porte-parole du gouvernement, Luc Chatel, avait immédiatement affirmé que les Britanniques étaient «invités» et que «la reine d'Angleterre, le chef de l'Etat britannique, est naturellement la bienvenue», tout en précisant que cette célébration était «au départ franco-américaine».

Jeudi, le palais royal a assuré qu'Elizabeth II n'avait «jamais exprimé le moindre sentiment de colère ou de frustration».

La veille, l'ambassadeur de Grande-Bretagne à Paris, Peter Westmacott, avait déjà affirmé au micro de RTL qu'il n'était «pas question de colère du tout» de la part de la reine. Toutefois, «il n'appartient pas à la France de désigner la représentation britannique», avait-il précisé. >>> | Jeudi 28 Mai 2009

David Cameron Attacks 'Fascist' BNP
THE TELEGRAPH: David Cameron launched a scathing attack on the British National Party while fielding questions at an agricultural show.

David Cameron speaks at the Royal Bath and West Show. Photo courtesy of The Telegraph
The Tory leader said many people would be angry at the main two parties over the MP expenses furore and would want to punish politicians by voting for the BNP or UKIP.

He was talking with the farming community at the Bath and West Show in Shepton Mallet, Somerset.

“If you vote for the BNP you are voting for a bunch of fascists who want to divide this country over the issues of race and the colour of skin,” he said.

He became angry when a member of the audience said the BNP “have a point when it comes to immigration”.

Mr Cameron told him: “Do not be naive about what these people stand for.

“They dress up in a suit and knock on your door in a nice way but they are still Nazi thugs. There is a proper national debate that we should have about immigration.

“I want us to limit the number of people coming to Britain, but do not believe that the way to beat the BNP is to half agree with them.

“These people are not pleasant people.” >>> | Thursday, May 28, 2009

Pat Condell*: Children of a Stupid God

*Please note that these are Pat Condell's ideas; they are not mine.

Extremist Preacher Abu Hamza's Three Sons Jailed for Luxury Car Scam
THE TELEGRAPH: Three sons of the extremist Muslim preacher Abu Hamza have been jailed for their part in a £1m luxury car scam.

Mohamed Mostafa . Photo courtesy of The Telegraph
The gang targeted makes including Mercedes, BMW and Range Rover which had been left in long-stay car parks.

They wrote to the DVLA to change their address and re-register the vehicles and when new log books were sent out they obtained a new set of keys from dealerships.

The cars were then sold on to unwitting third parties or used as collateral for loans.

Abu Hamza's sons Hamza Kamel, 22, and Mohamed Mostafa, 27, helped run the two-year fraud with the hook handed cleric's stepson Mohssin Ghailam, 28.

Martyn Bowyer, prosecuting, called the operation a "sophisticated, well-planned and professionally executed enterprise" that involved 32 vehicles which together were valued at more than £1m.

The court heard that Kamel admitted five counts of handling stolen cars and of laundering more than £14,000 of criminal money in relation to the scam was sentenced to two and a half years..

Mostafa, who lives with his brother in Acton West London, pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud by using false French passport to secure a £12,000 loan and to obtain keys for a BMW and was sentenced to two years.

Ghailan, from Shepherd's Bush, West London, described as a "key player", admitted conspiracy to defraud and was jailed for four years. >>> By Duncan Gardham, Telegraph Security Correspondent | Thursday, May 28, 2009

Pakistan Hit by Second Bombing in Two Days with Attack in Peshawar
THE TELEGRAPH: Suspected Taliban terrorists have bombed a second Pakistani city in as many days, with reports of blasts in Peshawar.

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing and shooting attack in Lahore on Wednesday that claimed as many as 30 lives.

Hours later two explosions were reported in a market in the northern city of Peshawar. Initial reports said that 15 people had been wounded in the blast.

Hakimullah Mehsud, a deputy to the Pakistani Taliban leader, Baitullah Mehsud, said that the Lahore attack, in which offices used by the police and the provicial headquarters of the ISI intelligence service were targeted, "was in response to the Swat operation where innocent people have been killed".

A little-known group calling itself the Taliban Movement in Punjab has also claimed responsibility for the attack. >>> Telegraph’s foreign staff and agencies, Lahore | Thursday, May 28, 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