Today's Zaman (Turquie) : "Israel pushes US President Obama to allow some settlement growth"

Israel pushes US President Obama to allow some settlement growth

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants to negotiate a deal with Washington under which Israeli building in existing Jewish settlements can go forward in certain cases, Israeli and Western officials said on Tuesday.

Under pressure from US President Barack Obama, Netanyahu this week publicly accepted for the first time the internationally backed goal of Palestinian statehood, but set a series of pre-conditions that were rejected by the Palestinians. Netanyahu has refused to accept Obama's direct call for a full settlement freeze in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, defending building in existing blocs to accommodate growing Jewish settler families, known-called "natural growth." Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has demanded a halt to all building, including natural growth, as a condition for resuming stalled peace negotiations with Israel. Western officials said Netanyahu's advisers have told their American and European counterparts that the Israeli government lacks legal authority to stop building in cases in which construction tenders have already been awarded or newly-built homes have already been purchased.

17 June 2009, Wednesday

REUTERS/AP  JERUSALEM