The US government has said it will no longer pursue efforts to persuade the Israeli government to freeze settlements in the occupied territories in order to resume stalled peace talks with the Palestinians. The USA promised Israel 20 Stealth fighter jets worth $3 billion and US vetoes on anti-Israel resolutions in the UN Security Council in exchange for a 90-day settlement freeze. Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu was unable to persuade his coalition cabinet to accept the deal.

Palestinian negotiators had demanded a freeze on building settlements in the occupied West Bank as well as in East Jerusalem, which would become the capital of an independent Palestine, as a pre-requisite for continuing talks that were begun in September 2010.

It is not immediately clear what the Obama administration will propose next. Israeli and Palestinian negotiators are arriving in Washington for talks and will attend the Saban Forum in Washington, DC where US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is to give a speech 10 December.

Links to other sites: JerusalemPost, LA Times, Washington Post

Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu,  in Washington for meetings, is seeing US  following sharp criticism from the US and increased tensions over Israel’s decision to build new settlements in East Jerusalem, but he came out forcefully on Israel’s right to build on land that is part of disputed territory taken during the 1967 Middle East War. “”The Jewish people were building Jerusalem 3,000 year ago and the Jewish people are building Jerusalem today. Jerusalem is not a settlement. It’s our capital,” Netanyahu said at a meeting of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, an American pro-Israel lobby group.

He met Monday with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vice-president Joe Biden and he meets Tuesday with President Barack Obama.

Links to other sites: BBC, Jerusalem Post, New York Times, Xinhua

The diplomatic Middle East Quartet, which met in Moscow Friday 19 March, has issued a strongly worded reaction to Israel’s recent announcement it intends to build 1,600 new homes in East Jerusalem. The group of four (the UN, US, Russia and the EU) are calling for Israel to remove settlement homes within 24 months. and for Palestinians and Israelis to negotiate an agreement in the same time period that provides for an independent Palestinian state living next to Israel in peace. “The quartet condemns the decision by the government of Israel to advance planning for new housing units in East Jerusalem, “UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon said unequivocally.

The New York Times had earlier reported that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appeared anxious to lower the temperature after Israel came in for heavy criticism over the housing. “We all condemned the announcement, and we all are expecting both parties to move toward the proximity talks and to help create an atmosphere in which those talks can be constructive,” Clinton said before the Quartet’s statement.

Links to other sites: Guardian, UK, Jerusalem Post, Moscow Times, New York Times

Israel has approved plans for 900 housing units to be built at Gilo, on land captured in 1967, which is today part of the municipality of Jerusalem. A White House spokesperson in the US and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressed dismay, saying the move would not help peace talks in the Middle East. The new housing is illegal under international law as widely interpreted, although Israel disputes this. Aljazeera reports that US negotiator George Mitchell asked Israel Monday 16 November not to approv the plans. . The plans are now subject to public comment.

Links to other sites: Aljazeera, BBC, New York Times

Israel Sunday began a simulation of  the 10th day of a regional war involving  rocket and missile attacks, a wave of suicide bombings, attacks on civilians and on infrastructure. Israelis from all walks of life participated in the country’s biggest drill to date, the third in three years. Code-named Turning Point 3, it lasts five days. For the first time, officials are testing a system that would send alerts of incoming missiles to private cell-phones and PCs. The drill may be linked to increased tensions between Israel and Iran, say some observers.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak headed to Washington Sunday in an attempt to ease the tensions over the US adminstration’s insistence on a stop to settlements in the occupied West Bank. CNN, Jerusalem Post, Haaretz

Updated 121:20 In the sharpest message sent in years by a US administration to Israel, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters after meeting with the Egyptian foreign minister that Israel must stop all settlements activities in Palestine, with no exceptions. “We think it is in the best interest of the effort that we are engaged in, that settlement expansion cease,” she said, noting that US President Barack Obama had been very clear on the matter in a recent meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas is due in Washington 28 May, and the settlements will be a topic in scheduled talks with Obama. Al Jazeera, BBC, New York Times and analysis, Jerusalem Post