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U.S. House Majority Leader: East Jerusalem Is Different than West Bank Settlements

[Jerusalem Post] Herb Keinon - Visiting U.S. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) called on Monday for the PA to drop any preconditions to negotiations and said that Congress differentiated between building in east Jerusalem and in the West Bank. Hoyer, leading a delegation of 29 Democratic legislators, also said the rhetoric coming out of the Fatah General Assembly in Bethlehem was "unfortunate." Hoyer, an important ally of President Obama, said he felt Obama "is also very committed to Israel making its own decision regarding what actions it will take vis-a-vis a [peace] agreement." He also said it was a mistake to make settlement construction the key issue, when it was not. Hoyer said that given the changes on the ground since 1967, he believed that most people in the U.S. - including the Obama administration - understood that a return to the 1967 boundaries was not realistic. According to Hoyer, "There is a significant difference between what we are talking about in the West Bank and Jerusalem itself, which is an integrated city; which is a whole....My view is that it will remain whole, and therefore...I don't think the partitioning of Jerusalem is a reasonable outcome. I don't think it will happen."
2009-08-11 06:00:00
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