FEATURED JOBS
Comments (0)Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel has shown that it is committed to peace after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton affirmed the “unshakable bond” between the two countries.
“We have an absolute commitment to Israel’s security,” Clinton said Tuesday during a news briefing in a softening of her rhetoric in recent days. “We have a close, unshakeable bond between the United States and Israel.”
“The State of Israel appreciates and respects the warm words said by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton regarding the deep bond between the U.S. and Israel, and on the U.S.‘s commitment to Israel’s security,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement released later Tuesday, Haaretz reported.
“With regard to commitments to peace, the government of Israel has proven over the last year that it is committed to peace, both in words and actions,” the statement continued.
The statements came a day after U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell put a planned trip to Israel on hold.
Mitchell was scheduled to arrive Tuesday in Israel, but reportedly delayed his trip until Israel meets the conditions set down by the United States in the wake of the crisis fomented by Israel’s announcement last week of a preliminary approval to build 1,600 apartments in an ultra-Orthodox eastern Jerusalem neighborhood.
“We want to make sure that we have the commitment from both sides that when he travels, we can make progress,” State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said, according to the Washington Post.
The demands include reversing the approval of the construction plan for the Ramat Shlomo neighborhood, a “substantial” good-will gesture toward the Palestinians such as releasing Palestinian prisoners, and agreeing publicly to discuss all core issues, including the status of Jerusalem, in upcoming peace talks. One demand, that Israel apologize for embarrassing Vice President Joe Biden in last week’s incident, has been met.
Israel is expected to give a formal answer to U.S. demands on Tuesday, according to the Washington Post.
Mitchell is due Friday in Moscow for a meeting of the Quartet on the Middle East.
Biden and Clinton are scheduled to meet Tuesday to discuss the current crisis between the United States and Israel, The New York Times reported.
Meanwhile, the Jerusalem Post reported Tuesday that sources in the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv said that Mitchell’s trip was postponed for “logistical reasons,” including consultations in Washington on Tuesday, and that he will come to Israel sometime after the Quartet’s meeting.
Israel Relaxes Jerusalem, West Bank Restrictions
Israel lifted its closure on the West Bank, and allowed visitors to the Temple Mount.
The relaxing of restrictions on Wednesday came one day after Palestinian rioting in eastern Jerusalem and the Old City. Some 100 Palestinians and 14 Israeli troops, including a soldier by live gunfire, were injured.
The West Bank had been closed since March 11.
Jerusalem remained calm on Wednesday afternoon, though police remain on high alert, according to reports.
The rioting was to protest the rededication Monday night of the ancient Hurva synagogue in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. The violence also is linked reportedly to Israel’s approval of a 1,600-apartment building plan in an eastern Jerusalem Jewish neighborhood.
On Tuesday, rocks were thrown at two buses driving through Jaffa, an apparent response to the unrest.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. Vice President Joe Biden reportedly spoke on the phone Tuesday night, though no details of the conversation were released. The announcement of the building plan in eastern Jerusalem was made during Biden’s visit to Israel and has stirred tensions between Israel and the United States.
Fischer to Remain Bank of Israel Governor
Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer will serve a second five-year term.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a news conference Wednesday at the Knesset announced that he would ask the Finance Ministry to approve the appointment.
Fischer agreed to the appointment after the Knesset voted in favor of a new Bank of Israel Law that he made contingent on agreeing to a second term.
The law, which passed its second and third readings on Tuesday, sets a series of checks and balances on the bank and the governor. The law currently governing the bank was passed in 1954.
Fischer, 66, became a citizen of Israel in 2005 in order to assume the post. He has kept Israel’s economy stable during the recent global recession.