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Biden criticizes Israel over building project

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Vice-President Joe Biden has again condemned Israel over a controversial building project, saying approval had undermined trust in the peace process. Biden was speaking after meeting the Palestinian Authority President, Mahmoud Abbas, in Ramallah (Photo: David Furst/AFP/Getty Images). Abbas also said the approval of 1,600 more Jewish homes in East Jerusalem threatened the peace process and called for it to be canceled. Israel insists the move has nothing to do with Biden’s visit. Linda Gradstein reports.

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MARCO WERMAN:  Vice President Joe Biden met today with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah.  Yesterday, Biden visited with Israeli officials.  The Vice President made the trip to try to help restart peace talks and to show U.S. support for Israel in the face of a growing threat from Iran.  But the trip has been all but overshadowed by what many consider a diplomatic blunder by Israel.  The Interior Minister there announced yesterday that it will build 1,600 new Jewish homes in East Jerusalem.  As Linda Gradstein reports, the announcement surprised and disappointed the Vice President.

LINDA GRADSTEIN:  Standing next to Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, the Vice President had harsh words for Israel.

JOE BIDEN:  It’s incumbent on both parties to build an atmosphere of support for negotiations and not to complicate them.  Yesterday the decision by the Israel government to advance planning for new housing units in east Jerusalem undermines that very trust.  The trust that we need right now in order to begin as well as produce profitable negotiations.  That is why I immediately condemned the action.

GRADSTEIN:  Abbas said Israel should reverse the decision about building the homes.

MAHMOUD ABBAS:  Once again, I call on the Israeli government not to waste the opportunity for peace.  I call on the Israel government to stop settlement and to stop putting the fate of the country on the ground and to give effort of President Obama and Senator Mitchell the opportunities, the right opportunities to succeed.

GRADSTEIN:  In Israel, interior minister, Eli Yishai apologized for the timing of the announcement, saying it was not meant to embarrass the Vice President.  He also said that if he had known in advance, he would have pushed the announcement off until after Biden left.  Last night, Biden had dinner with Prime minster Benjamin Netanyahu.  He showed up more than an hour late, in a move the Israeli media saw as a snub.  Netanyahu insisted he didn’t now in advance that the announcement was coming, as Israeli ambassador to the U.S., Michael Oren, told Israel Television.

MICHAEL OREN:  The Prime minster knows no more about every single housing project in the city of Jerusalem than President Obama knows about every housing project in downtown Washington.  It’s a very complex situation.  There are many authorities involved in the housing business in Jerusalem.  The prime minster can’t know it all.

GRADSTEIN:  But some in Israel say he should have known about something like this. Interior minister, Eli Yishai is from the ultra Orthodox Shas party and is a member of Netanyahu’s coalition.  Some here speculated that Shas, which supports expansion of Jewish settlements and opposed Netanyahu’s decision to freeze new building starts for ten months, is trying to embarrass Netanyahu into building more homes.  But Netanyahu has repeatedly said that the settlement freeze does not apply to East Jerusalem.  Here’s cabinet minster, Uzi Landau.

UZI LANDAU:  Jerusalem is our capitol.  And as no one would suggest to negotiate any part of London for whatever reason it is, one should not expect the government of Israel to do that.  In fact, this government has been elected to this office just to make clear that on our capitol, on the city of David, we are not going to negotiate.

GRADSTEIN:  To the Palestinians, east Jerusalem is the future capitol of the Palestinian state.  To the U.S., the status of east Jerusalem should be determined through negotiations.  To Israel, east Jerusalem is an indivisible part of its capitol and building will continue.  Tomorrow, the Vice President gives a speech at Tel Aviv University that was supposed to show the world just how close the U.S. and Israel are.  Israeli officials are wondering if that speech is being changed in light of yesterday’s events.  For the World, I’m Linda Gradstein in Jerusalem.

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