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Israel Rejects U.S. Demands on Building in East Jerusalem

(New York Times) Ethan Bronner - The discord between the U.S. and Israel over Jewish building in East Jerusalem deepened Tuesday with Israeli officials rejecting demands by Washington and expressing anger over the public upbraiding of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by the Obama administration. Since Israel annexed East Jerusalem, Israeli officials say, a request to scrap Jewish building projects there is both legally unfeasible and a betrayal of the mandate of the current government, elected on a platform of keeping Jerusalem united under Israeli sovereignty. Israeli officials say the Obama administration misread the situation, and that stopping building in Jerusalem was never an option. "We must tell the American government that there are things we can do and things we cannot do," said Dore Gold, a former Israeli ambassador to the UN, who was reflecting the current government's thinking. "Freezing building in east Jerusalem is one of those things we cannot do."
2010-03-17 09:14:28
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