Senior official in Washington says President Obama thinks Israeli “settlement construction” caused peace talks to fail.
Elad Benari
Israel National News
5/16/2014
U.S. President Barack Obama sees Israel as being responsible for the failure of the recent peace talks with the Palestinian Authority (PA), according to a senior official in Washington who was quoted by the New York Times on Friday.
The unnamed official told the newspaper that the president believes that Israel’s announcements of new construction in Judea and Samaria were to blame for the failure.
“At every juncture, there was a settlement announcement,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. “It was the thing that kept throwing a wrench in the gears.”
The official said that Obama has now decided to take a conspicuous breather from the Middle East peace process, in order “to let the failure of the talks sink in for both parties, and see if that causes them to reconsider.”…
…Deputy Minister Ofir Akunis (Likud) later issued a sharp response to Indyk’s accusations, saying, “There are not two truths here, only one: the Palestinians torpedoed the negotiations by choosing to reconcile with Hamas and take unilateral steps to apply to UN agencies.”
Akunis also noted the flaws in Indyk’s logic that construction over the 1949 Armistice lines destroyed chances for peace.
“There were no ‘settlements’ until 1967,” he said. “Why didn’t the Palestinians extend a hand in peace before that?”…
The article continues at Israel National News.
Related: US ‘Humiliating’ Senior Israelis Who Ask for Visas. Senior IDF personnel find it hard to get into the US. Ex-defense minister Mofaz was denied entry ‘because of Iranian birth.’
