PM Netanyahu

Israel news photo: file

No Change on Jerusalem Policy Despite US Pressure

by Maayana Miskin

(IsraelNN.com) Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's office said Friday that Israel will not change its policy vis-a-vis Jerusalem despite United States pressure. Netanyahu returned Thursday from a round of meetings in the US during which he was asked to restrict the construction of housing for Jews in parts of the capital city. Right wing MK's and groups are making efforts to show Netanyahu that mainstream Israel is with him on this issue.

Most Israeli mainstream media, however, described the meetings as a failure. The US hoped to talk Netanyahu into making major concessions to the Palestinian Authority, but Netanyahu refused to concede and said he would discuss the matter with his mini-Cabinet of seven senior ministers.

The prime minister is to meet with the seven ministers on Friday to discuss the outcome of his talk with Obama, and to submit America's demands for their consideration.

Obama pushed Netanyahu to agree to extend the construction freeze in Judea and Samaria, to release hundreds of terrorists affiliated with PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah organization, and to deny Jews the right to build in parts of Jerusalem that were under Jordanian control between the years 1948 and 1967.

Obama Criticized over 'US-Engineered Deadlock'
Obama's attempt to win Israeli concessions was criticized in America as well as in Israel. The Washington Post published an editorial this week terming the deadlock between Israel and the PA as “a US-engineered deadlock.”...

You know there is more, here.

[Interesting op/ed over at the Beeb:

Israel remains defiant amid allies' growing anger

Tim Franks BBC News, Jerusalem

As relations between Britain and Israel continue to unravel, in Jerusalem many Israelis feel that the outside world still fails to understand the problems - and threats - their country is facing.

Uzi Arad is a very important man. He's now the director of Israel's National Security Council, and National Security Adviser to the prime minister - a position he's held since Benjamin Netanyahu took office.

Uzi Arad's cordial relationship with Britain's MI6 is no longer

Uzi Arad has a reputation for fighting fiercely and territorially among the sharp edges that exist at the height of the Israeli power pyramid.

He was always hospitable whenever I, on occasion, used to visit him at home - before he took up his current job.

He'd spent more than 20 years in Mossad - Israel's secret intelligence service, and before he was appointed one of its directors, he was stationed for a time in London.

Once, at his house, he took me into his expansive library. He reached onto a shelf and extracted a book called Mandarin - the memoirs of the British diplomat Sir Nicholas Henderson...

Read the rest here.]