U.S. and Israel Get Gnarly in Public

Netanyahu says no go on stopping the settlement-building...It’s getting very public and very gnarly between Israel and the U.S. You know, the whole Peace Talk thing- Israel is not at all happy and not at all listening to what the U.S. is asking for.

The basic situation is that the Peace Talks are and have been in bad shape- sort of non-existent for a long time. In order to start them again, the U.S. is backing  a Palestinian demand that all settlement building by Israel in occupied territories stop. A few months ago Israel said it would stop building them for a few months and then exempted much of Jerusalem. So, really they didn’t stop. And the Palestinians are asking for an indefinite stop- moreso, they want it to stop for good. As in, stop building cities in occupied territory that you took as part of a war. Israel, on the other hand, has no intention of stopping settlement-building. For one, there is a serious need for new housing. For two, these are by now well-established Israeli settlements- it’s not like the people are going to up and move somewhere else…

So we are at that standoff. The U.S., having long marched with Israel step by step, is publically going at it with them on a few issues right now. They are siding with the Palestinians on this one, asking Israel to halt the building in settlement territory. And they are seeing Israel break ranks with them around how to deal with Iran- Israel wants to be more aggressive than the U.S. (that may have something to do with Israel being in missile range of Iran…)

While things were more strained before 1980 or so, after Regan things have been pretty good between the U.S. and Israel. This recent butting of heads marks a break from the decidedly pro-Israel stance of President George W. Bush.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently called what Israel did insulting, and you know you’re not going out for beers after the U.N. meeting when you are saying something like that.

Essentially, we are calling Israel out- we want them to stop with building and they want us to have their back on the Iran situation. Here’s what Netanyahu has to say about settlement building:

"For the past 40 years, no Israeli government ever limited construction in the neighborhoods of Jerusalem," said Netanyahu in a speech in parliament.

So, that sounds pretty unequivocal, as in Netanyahu is drawing a line in the sand and saying he will not back down past generations of history just because the White House decides it’s time to give some weight to Palestinian demands.

It basically sounds like both sides are backed into respective corners- Clinton is angry and feeling like she is being disrespected (or that her country is being disrespected) so she uses the word insulting. Netanyahu feels equally disrespected, so he tells the U.S. he won’t play nice. Let the next chapter in U.S.-Israeli relations begin.

If you want more on the fascinating history of relations between Israel and the U.S., take a look at the Reuters TIMELINE.

Photo Credit: World Economic Forum (via Flickr under CCL)