Israel seeks to patch up row over settlement plans

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a public apology to the visiting US vice president yesterday in a bid to defuse a row over settlements which prompted a Palestinian boycott of indirect peace talks.
Vice President Joe Biden welcomed Netanyahu’s statement but again criticised Israel’s decision to approve construction of 1,600 new homes for Jewish settlers in east Jerusalem, which was announced during his visit this week.
Israel’s right-wing prime minister, who supports expanding Jewish communities in annexed Arab east Jerusalem, said he had spoken to Biden and “expressed his regret for the unfortunate timing.”
Biden welcomed Netanyahu’s response.
“Sometimes only a friend can deliver the hardest truths, and I appreciate ... the response by the prime minister today,” Biden said in a speech at Tel Aviv University.
He noted that Netanyahu “clarified that the beginning of actual construction on this particular project would likely take several years.”
“That’s significant because it gives negotiators the time to resolve this as well as other outstanding issues,” said Biden, who had strongly condemned Israel’s go-ahead for the settlement construction.
Netanyahu called Biden yesterday morning, “and both agreed the crisis is behind them,” an official in the premier’s office said.
The Palestinians however rejected the statement because it only addressed the timing of the project and not its substance.
“The statement is unacceptable because it talks about an error in timing and not the error in substance, which is the continuation of settlements that must stop,” Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erakat told AFP.