Netanyahu savors victory after U.S. drops settlement demand

“There is no question that the United States are our staunchest friends and that Israel's firm stance on its positions pays off,” Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon happily told public radio on Sunday.

Speaking before the weekly cabinet meeting, Science and Technology Minister Daniel Hershkowitz proclaimed: “The US administration understands what we have always said — that the real obstacle to negotiations are the Palestinians.”

The Israelis had reason to be glib.

In a joint news conference held, unusually, before talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pressed for negotiations to be restarted as soon as possible, despite the Palestinian insistence — which Washington backed only a few months ago — that Israel must first put a stop to all settlement activity in the occupied West Bank.

“What the prime minister has offered in specifics of a restraint on the policy of settlements... is unprecedented,” Clinton said at Saturday's press conference, adding that “there has never been a pre-condition, it's always been an issue within negotiations.”

It marked a sharp easing of tone on the thorny issue. In May, following US President Barack Obama's first meeting with Netanyahu, Clinton had said that Obama “wants to see a stop to settlements. Not some settlements, not outposts, not natural growth exceptions.”

Israeli analysts said the change of tone came after Washington realized that its main ally would just not give in on settlements, supported by the vast majority of the electorate of Netanyahu's right-leaning government.

“The initial American position was totally unrealistic,” said Ephraim Inbar, a political analyst with the right-leaning Bar-Ilan University.

“They finally understood that this is what they can get and no more.” But the Palestinians warned the change in focus was bound to doom Washington's wider goal of getting a peace agreement to end their decades-old conflict.

“Israel should not be given any excuse to continue building settlements,” said Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina. “This is the main obstacle in the way of peace.”

Clinton's comments marked “a huge disappointment for the Palestinians with respect to the Obama administration,” said Ziad Abu Zayyad, co-editor of the Palestine-Israel Journal and a former Palestinian minister and legislator.

“The Obama administration has proven once again that it is no different from previous administrations, because it will support whatever Israel accepts and will not support what Israel does not accept.”

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