By Gwen Ackerman and Jonathan Ferziger March 10 (Bloomberg) — Vice President Joe Biden condemned an Israeli plan to build new houses in East Jerusalem, saying it threatened to undermine a U.S. effort to restart the Israeli- Palestinian peace process that had brought him to the region. In a statement issued hours after he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem yesterday, Biden said the announcement of the plan “is precisely the kind of step that undermines the trust we need right now and runs counter to the constructive discussions that I’ve had” in Israel. “We must build an atmosphere to support negotiations, not complicate them,” said Biden, who will meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah today. Israel’s Interior Ministry planning committee approved the plans for 1,600 new homes, according to an e-mailed statement yesterday. The ministry said in the statement that the decision was a “procedural” step in a “long process” and that the timing had “no connection whatsoever” to Biden’s visit. The Obama administration wasn’t informed in advance about Israel’s announcement, said a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity. The Palestinian Authority criticized Israel’s move, saying it “will obstruct efforts to resume the negotiations with indirect talks.” The homes approved yesterday will be built in an area of Jerusalem captured by Israel from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East war. The Palestinians seek east Jerusalem as the capital of a future state to be established in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. Biden’s trip began March 8 with the announcement that Israel and the Palestinians had agreed to participate in negotiations that would allow them to discuss peace without meeting face-to-face. Settlements Dispute Previous U.S. efforts to revive talks foundered on the issue of West Bank settlements, with Netanyahu announcing a partial building halt and Abbas demanding a freeze on all construction. George Mitchell , the special envoy for Mideast peace who recently returned from the region, said on March 8 that he was “pleased that the Israeli and Palestinian leadership have accepted indirect talks” and urged all parties “to refrain from any statements or actions which may inflame tensions.” Fayez Abu Eita, spokesman for Abbas’s Fatah party in the West Bank, said the onus was on Biden, 67, to exploit his visit to pressure Israel to stop “settlement activities.” Before Biden’s arrival, Israel disclosed that it had approved construction for 112 new homes in the West Bank, drawing condemnation from the Palestinian Authority, which called the action “provocative.” Talks Frozen Israeli-Palestinian talks have been frozen since the end of 2008, when Israel carried out an offensive in the Gaza Strip that it said was intended to stop Hamas from firing rockets at Israeli communities. Indirect negotiations enable Palestinians to engage with Israel even though Abbas made a public commitment to forgo talks until all settlement construction is stopped. The foreign ministers of Arab states agreed in Cairo last week to give the “proximity talks” four months and call for an emergency United Nations Security Council meeting if they fail. After meeting with Netanyahu yesterday, Biden said “peace is going to require both parties to make some historically bold commitments.” He said the U.S. “will always stand with those who take risks for peace.” Daniel Kurtzer , the U.S. ambassador to Israel from 2001 to 2005, said Israel’s housing announcement during the vice president’s trip “tells you this is a Swiss-cheese settlement freeze. It’s really not serious.” ‘It’s Surprising’ “It’s surprising it would be this overt when there’s an arrival of a friend like Joe Biden,” said Kurtzer, now a visiting professor at Princeton University in New Jersey. Biden will also meet with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and tour the West Bank town of Bethlehem. On March 11, he flies to Jordan. Palestinians would like to see the U.S. pressure Israel to stop all settlement activity and set dates for progress to be made, said Nabil Kukali , director of the Beit Sahour, West Bank- based Palestinian Center for Public Opinion . “Palestinians in general want the American government to just be fair and neutral,” said Kukali. In Jerusalem, Biden also told Israeli leaders that the U.S. was “determined to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons,” and expressed an “absolute, total, unvarnished commitment to Israel’s security.” Iran Restrictions The U.S. has given China, Britain, France, Russia and Germany a proposal to tighten restrictions on deals with Iran’s banking, shipping and insurance industries. Gabriela Shalev , Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, told reporters in New York that while her government would like to see “crippling” new UN sanctions imposed on Iran, the chances were “grim” that the Security Council would agree on such measures. Failure to adopt such sanctions would make it more likely that either one of two “bad options” would occur: Iran will “race” toward developing nuclear weapons or be stopped “by force” from doing so, Shaley said. Defense Minister Ehud Barak said yesterday that while Israel continued to seek out an arrangement that would stop Iran’s nuclear program, it was keeping one hand “with its finger near the trigger to defend itself,” a statement from his office said. To contact the reporters on this story: Gwen Ackerman in Jerusalem at gackerman@bloomberg.net ; Jonathan Ferziger in Jerusalam and Ramallah at 1200 or jferziger@bloomberg.net .
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Biden Calls Israel Housing Plan Threat to Peace Talks Amid Visit to Region
