Sheryl Gay Stolberg
The New York Times
11/9/2010
President Obama, stepping into an Israeli-Palestinian dispute during a homecoming visit to the world’s largest Muslim majority nation, criticized Israel on Tuesday for its decision to advance the approval of some 1,000 new housing units in East Jerusalem during a sensitive time in the peace negotiations with the Palestinians.
“This kind of activity is never helpful when it comes to peace negotiations, and I’m concerned that we’re not seeing each side make the extra effort involved to get a breakthrough,” Mr. Obama said during a joint news conference with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono here. He added, “Each of these incremental steps end up breaking trust.”
Mr. Obama arrived here Tuesday afternoon from New Delhi on a long-awaited visit that is now being cut short by a cloud of volcanic ash headed toward Jakarta. The ash is expected to interfere with air travel on Wednesday, forcing the president to leave several hours ahead of his scheduled departure for Seoul, where he will attend the G-20 conference of world leaders…
…The plight of the Palestinians is a big issue in Indonesia, so much so that President Yudhoyono mentioned it in his opening remarks, saying he had told Mr. Obama that “we need a resolution on Palestine and Israel in a permanent sustainable manner.”
Read the rest at the New York Times.
H/T GatewayPundit who also included this from Power Line:
According to Politico, ACORN protesters were among the left-wing activists who appeared at a rally in New Dehli, India during President Obama’s visit there. Apparently, they were protesting the proposed liberalization of the retail industry, which could bring chains like Wal-Mart to India.
ACORN founder Wade Rathke was in India to help with the protest. Rathke is an old ally of Obama, whose ties to ACORN, as Stanley Kurtz has shown, were substantial (more so than Politico lets on in its story).
Update: From TigerHawk, Unfortunate Headline of the Week
Read the rest at TigerHawk
