U.S. drops demand for Israel building freeze in East Jerusalem
According to both Israeli officials and Western diplomats, U.S. envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell has recognized the fact that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cannot announce a settlement freeze in East Jerusalem. The officials said the U.S. will not endorse new construction there, but would not demand Jerusalem publicly announce a freeze.
For full article, visit http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1110507.html
Russian Jews ponder age-old question: Israel or the U.S.?
Leon (Lunia) Gayer, 33, and English teacher, has been living in Brooklyn for 16 years. “We had an aunt who joined one of the first waves of immigration to Israel. Grandma used to correspond with her in Yiddish. I began studying Hebrew when I was still in Odessa, but we decided to come to New York because they said that in Israel you must serve in the army and the Russian experience with the military has not been too great. One relative told us we were crazy even to consider Israel, where he said they live in mud huts …. Here I remained quite Russian, because in America there is no pressure to give up your previous culture and identity. Because of this approach, the link to tradition comes from a more correct place, without pressure and coercion.”
For full article, visit http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1108589.html
Huckabee: 2-state solution ‘unrealistic’
“The question is, should the Palestinians have a place to call their own?” he asked. “Yes, I have no problem with that. Should it be in the middle of the Jewish homeland? That’s what I think has to be honestly assessed as virtually unrealistic.”
However, Huckabee backed away from a suggestion he made in 2007 that the Palestinian state could be formed in Egypt or Saudi Arabia.
“It wasn’t so much of a plan, I think, as it was a speculation,” he said. “I was speculating. My question was, why does it [the Palestinian state] have to be here?”
For full article, visit http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1249418638530&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Israel rejects Clinton claim of no agreement on settlements
Israeli officials rejected on Saturday a statement by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton dismissing Israeli assertions that the Bush administration had agreed to allow some construction in the settlements to allow for natural growth.
“There is no memorialization of any informal and oral agreements. If they did occur, which, of course, people say they did, they did not become part of the official position of the United States government,” Clinton told reporters on Friday, in a news conference with her Turkish counterpart, Ahmet Davutoglu, at the State Department.
For full article, visit http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1244035012765&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
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