October 5, 2016 | No Comments
The Obama administration is in yet another public spat with Israel — and is all but calling Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government a bunch of liars.
Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Wednesday that Israel’s announcement of a new settlement located deep in the West Bank goes against promises made by the Jewish state.
“Well we did receive public assurances from the Israeli government that contradict this announcement,” Earnest said at his daily press briefing on Wednesday. “I guess when we’re talking about how good friends treat one another, that’s a source of serious concern as well.”
The new settlement will be closer to Jordan than it will be to Israel, Earnest noted, and will fill in a string of outposts that could effectively cut in half the occupied West Bank and ultimately make any peace agreement much more difficult to reach. He reiterated the U.S. position that a two-state solution is in the security interest of both the U.S. and Israel and that “expanding these settlements only makes it harder to negotiate a sustainable and equitable peace agreement in good faith between the two parties.”
The announcement of a new settlement was especially disturbing, Earnest said, because of the $38 billion military assistance package the two countries agreed to last month. The decade-long deal represents the largest ever U.S. commitment to the security of another country.
That the settlement announcement came shortly after the death of Israeli politician Shimon Peres, whose career was marked by efforts to bring peace to the region, was a source of added frustration for the White House, Earnest said.
“The United States has long believed and we continue to belief that is within the clear interest of Israel’s national security to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a way that allows a democratic and Jewish state of Israel to live side by side in peace and security with a viable and contiguous Palestinian state,” Earnest said. “And the announcement of these settlements makes that national security priority harder to achieve.”
“This kind of announcement from the Israelis only puts that kind of [two-state] solution farther from reach and that is not good for Israel’s national security, it’s not good for the security interests of the United States, it’s inconsistent with the public assurances that have been issued by the Israeli government, and all that’s the source of disappointment and deep concern here at the White House,” he added.
State Department spokesman Mark Toner also blasted the Israeli move, describing it as “deeply troubling” and “another step towards cementing a one-state reality of perpetual occupation that is fundamentally inconsistent with Israel’s future as a Jewish and democratic state.”
Toner added: “Such moves will only draw condemnation from the international community, distance Israel from many of its partners, and further call into question Israel’s commitment to achieving a negotiated peace.”
The Israeli Foreign Ministry pushed back in a statement, arguing that the new housing units “do not constitute a ‘new settlement’ and that they were necessary to accommodate residents of a nearby outpost that was recently evacuated.
“This housing will be built on state land in the existing settlement of Shilo and will not change its municipal boundary or geographic footprint,” the statement said. “The units are intended to provide a housing solution for the residents of Amona who must leave their homes in accordance with the demolition order issued by Israel’s High Court of Justice.”
And the ministry reiterated Israel’s commitment to a two-state solution, provided the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state.
“The real obstacle to peace is not the settlements — a final status issue that can and must be resolved in negotiations between the parties — but the persistent Palestinian rejection of a Jewish state in any boundaries,” the statement said.