Contested settlement
Israeli settlement construction in the occupied Palestinian territories has proved to be among the most serious irritants in the U.S.-Israel relationship. It is also one of the most significant obstacles to a negotiated settlement. But with direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations kicking off this week and Israel’s partial settlement freeze set to expire a few weeks in ...
Israeli settlement construction in the occupied Palestinian territories has proved to be among the most serious irritants in the U.S.-Israel relationship. It is also one of the most significant obstacles to a negotiated settlement. But with direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations kicking off this week and Israel’s partial settlement freeze set to expire a few weeks in the future, the issue is once again poised to come to the forefront of the Middle East peace process.
President Barack Obama’s administration has already found itself entangled in this issue twice this year — first when Vice President Joe Biden visited Israel in March, and again when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Washington later that month. In both cases, Israeli officials announced controversial settlement projects in Palestinian areas of occupied East Jerusalem in a manner that was deeply embarrassing to the Obama administration. During his Israel visit, Biden condemned the settlement construction as “precisely the kind of step that undermines the trust we need right now” in one of the most public manifestations of the perceived rift that had emerged between the United States and Israel since Obama’s inauguration.
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